Autobiography of James Silk Buckingham;

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C. K. OGDEN

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM;

INCLUDING HIS

VOYAGES, TRAVELS, ADVENTURES, SPECULATIONS,
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES,

FAITHFULLY AND FEANKLT N AERATED:
INTERSPERSED WITH

CHARACTERISTIC SKETCHES OF PUBLIC MEN

WITH WHOM HE HAS HAD INTERCOURSE,
DURING A PERIOD OF MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS.

WITH A PORTRAIT.

VOL. II.

LONDON;

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.

1855.

Tlie Author of this JVork notifies that he reserves the right of translating it.

London;

A. and G. A. Spottiswoode,

New-Street-Square.

K8A3

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA BARBARA

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER L

Page

Voyage through the Straits of Scio to Smyrna - - l

Bccahned off the Island of Mytelene or Lesbos - - 2

Lines to the Setting Moon, air — "Fly not yet" - - 3

Anchor in the Bay of Smyrna. — Splendid scene - - 4

First landing in Asiatic Turkey. — First impressions - - 5

European or Frank society. — Country residences - - 7

Anecdote of an English captain as conjuror - - - 9

Turkish governor and Greek coiner of money - - 1 1

Fascinations of the soirees of Madame Marracini - ■• 13

Lord Byron. — Mr. Hobhouse.— Mr. Cockercll and Mr. Forster 13

Mr. Fiott's adventurous joiu-ney across Asia Minor - - 14

Captain Beaufort's survey of Caramania - - - 15

Coup-de-soleil. and severe delirious fever - - - 16

Anecdote of Captain Hope, of the Salsette frigate - - 1 7

Voyage home and safe arrival - - - - 20

CHAP. IL

New phase of life. — Gaiety and pleasure in London - - 21

Appointed to command the Scipio for the Mediterranean - 22

First interest about India and its commei'cial monopoly - 22

Meeting at the Mansion-house on the Company's charter - 22

Alderman Waithman and Sir William Curtis - - 23

Leave London for Portsmouth. — Domestic calamity - - 28

Liberality of the ship's owners. — My wife and child join me - 2!)

Scene at Gibraltar. — Female patriotism and loyalty - . 30
A 2

IV CONTENTS.

Page

Sail for Malta. — Sudden gale and great danger - - 32

The lost thimble, a first misfortune in life - - - 33

Singular obstruction to the progress of the fleet - - 35

Immense swarm of locusts drowned in the sea - - 35

Islands of Zambro and Pantellaria. — Cape Bon - - 38

Fu-st sight of Sicily. — History and poetry of the island - 39

CHAP. III.

Stay at Malta and agreeable parties there - - - 41

Voyage through the Archipelago.— Attacked by Greek pirates 42

Obstinate conflict and ultimate victory. — Injury sustained - 45

Succeeding storm and danger of shipwTeck - - - 54

Island of Santorin thrown up by submarine volcano - - 55

Crete or Candia, its history and associations - - - 55

Delos, the sacred island of the Greeks. — Awe of the Persian Fleet 57

Nicaria. — Singular custom of sponge divers - - - 58

Samos, its ancient celebrity and modern decay - - 59

Pythagoras and his doctrines. — Moore's classical odes - 60

Ancient traveller's description of Samos divers - - 61

Passage through the Straits of Scio to Smyrna - - 61

Plague raging in the city. —Villages happily free - - 62

CHAP. IV.

Agreeable stay at Smyrna, notwithstanding the plague - 64

Practical proofs of its non-contagious character - - 65

Visit of Mrs. Buckingham to the harem of the Governor - 67

Singular notions of Asiatics as to female beauty - - 68

Adventure on horseback, and narrow escape - - - 69

Friendly intercourse with Captain Hope of the Sa/seWe - 71

Dramatic entertainment given on board the frigate - - 72

Anecdote of a seaman and the Wooden Horse of Troy - 74

Admiral Hope, his practical piety and benevolence - - 74

Arrival of Sir William Ousel ey from Persia - - - 75

Mr. Price, the Oriental scholar.— Learned shoemakers - - 76

Excursion to Scio, the birthplace of Homer - - - 77

Beauty of the women and longevity of the men - - 79

Visit to Cheshme, the Erythjean and Cumcean Sybil - - 80

CONTENTS. • V

CHAP. V.

Page

Sail from Smyrna with a companion, the Hermes - - 82

Terrific hail-storm, and loss of topmast on the African coast - 83

Repair of damages. — Anecdote of a refractory carpenter - 85

Arrival at Gibraltar. — First news of War with America - 86

Narrow escape from being wrecked on Cape Finisterre - 87

An-ival in the Thames. — Stangate Creek. — Quarantine - 89

Seamen prevented from hanging the carpenter at the yard-arm 90

Absurdity and inefficiency of the Laws of Quarantine - 91

CHAP. VI.

Elegant hospitalities and agreeable parties in England - 95

Anecdotes of a Don Cossack Chief from Russia - - 97

Mania of the English for notoriety.— Lady Cork's rout - 98

Resolution taken to resign the sea as a profession - - 101

Plan for setthng at Malta as a shipowner and merchant - 101

Sail from London on this expedition. — Lines to the Moon - 102

Information of the plague raging at Malta - - - 106

Influence of fear on one of the passengers - - - 107

Terror of all parties on shore at the spread of the disease - 109

Currently received account of its origin and progress - 110

CHAP. Yll.

Sail for Smyrna. — Leaving goods behind at Malta - - 115

Excursion to Clazomene, the city of Anaxagoras - - 1 1 6

Description of the ruins.— Causeway. — Theatre. — Acropolis - 117

Fate of Anaxagoras, for being a man before his time - - 119

Continued disastrous news of deaths and failures in Malta - 122

Loss of all my property there, and increased liabilities - 123

Second instance of pecuniary misfortune without fault - 123

Resolution to try new ground, by going to Egypt - - 123

CHAP. VIIL

Embark for Egypt in the schooner T7ieocZosi'a - - - 125

Naval veteran commander's appearance and habits - - 125

A 3

VI CONTENTS.

Page

Watering at Vpurla, and passage tlirougli the Archipelago - 126

Sight of Candia, and Mount Ida of the Cretan Jove - - 127

Anecdotes of grog-drinking by the points of compass - 127

Eirst sight of the shores of Egypt. — Ponapey's Pillar - - 129

Unfavourable impressions on landing at Alexandria - - 129

Agreeable state of society among the Europeans - - 130

Excursions during the day.^Mareotis, Aboukir, &c. - - 131

Singular Club, called " The Bucolicanic Association" - 132

Anniversary celebrated in the gardens of Alexandria - 132

Pi'ize poem for translation. — Ode to Hope - - - 133

Resolution taken to repair to Grand Cairo - - - 136

CHAP. IX.

Voyage from Alexandria to Rosetta by the Lakes - - 138

Battle-fields of Abercrombie and Nelson ... 133

Rosetta and its environs. — Costume of the British Consul - 139

Embark on the Nile for Cairo. — The Inundation - - 142

Amphibious boatmen. — Current. — Etesian winds - - 143

Delicious climate and scenery on the banks of the Nile - 144

Eeast of Bairam. — Conversation with learned pilgrims - 145

Their notions of geography and history — The Aixtic regions 147

First sight of Cairo and the Egyptian pyramids - - 149

Striking peculiarities and varieties of the population - - 150

Hospitable reception at the Bi-itish Residency - - 151

Character of Colonel Missett and his suite and parties - 152

Visits to all the objects of interest in Cairo and its environs - 154

Anecdotes of Oriental ideas and manners - - - 155

View of Cairo from the citadel. — Ignorance of villagers - 155

State of European society in Cairo generally - - - 15S

CHAP. X.

Offer to transport ships across the Desert of Suez - - 161

Mode of operation and probable cost - - - - 162

Proposition for my making an expedition to India - - 163

Projected opening of a Canal from the Nile to the Red Sea - 165

Departure on a voyage to the Catai'acts and Nubia - - 166

CONTENTS. Vll

Page

Ruins of Memphis. — Pyramids of Saccara and Dashour - 167

Journey through Faioura to the Lake Moeris and Labyrinth - 171

Design of gathering rose-dew, to send to EngUind - - 171

Ruins of Antinoe and Hermopohs. — Contrast of styles - 174

CHAP. XI.

Visit a caravan of slaves from the interior of Africa - - 176

Stay amidst the ruins of the hundred-gated Thebes - - 177

Pirst interview with Mr. Burckhardt at Esne - - - 179

Reach Syene. — The frontiers of Egypt and Nubia - - 183

Proceed further, till rendered blind by ophthalmia - - 184

Return to Esne. — Letter of Mr. Bm-ckhardt and second meeting 185

Halt at Keneh, for my Desert journey to Cosseir - - 187

CHAP. XIL

Descent of the Nile fi-oni Nubia, and the Cataracts - - 189

Predicted perils of a journey across the Desert to Cosseir - 189

Disorganisation and disorder of the Turkish troops - - 1 9 1

Mohammed Ali's expedition against the Wahabees - - 192

An Arabian maiden warrior, a second Joan of Arc - - 192

Depai'ture from Keneh with an Albanian soldier - - 196

Travelling by night to avoid observation - - - 198

Jackals and Hyajuas encountered on the route - - 201

Drunken companion. — Robbed of our camels - - 202

Other animals obtained with difficulty - _ _ 2O4

Ai-rested by a party of Albanian mutineers - - - 2O6

Stripped of everything, and left naked in the Desert - - 208

Hospitality of a " Good Samaritan " Bedouin - - - 210

Dreadful suffering from wounds, hunger, and thirst - - 211

Arrival at Cosseir. — New difficulties there - - - 213

Return to Keneh without effecting my object - - - 218

CHAP. XIIL

Descent of the Nile from Keneh to Cairo - - - 219
Commission to siuwey the Isthmus of Suez, and ascertain the

practicability of a Canal across it - - - - 220

VIU CONTENTS.

Page

Leave Cairo in the costume and character of a Bedouin Arab 221

Companions of my journey, and route pursued - - 221

Rude hospitality of the inhabitants of the Desert - - 224

Aversion of both men and camels to enclosed buildings - 228

Halt at the castle of Adjerood for the night - - - 229

Arab opinions of regular government and civilised life - 230

Arrive at Suez, and favourable reception by the Governor - 230

Description of the to^vn, and nautical survey of the harbour - 232

Entry of the great caravan of 4,000 camels from Caii'o - 236

Variety of races, complexions, characters, and costumes - 236

Predicted dangers of our future Desert Journey - - 237

Moore's Vision of Philosophy. — Sage of the Eed Sea - 239

CHAP. XIV.

Journey in search of the ancient Canal - - . 242

Tradition of the Israelites passing the Eed Sea - - 243

Places still called the Island and Creek of the Jews - - 243

No phenomena observed to account for this event according to

the oi'dinary course of natui-al means - - - - 244

Ai'rival at the bed of the ancient Canal ... 245

Authorities of Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus, and Pliny - 246

Exact coiTcspondence of the remains with these - - 249

Cleopatra's voyage on this Canal in her splendid barge - 249

Dreadful storm in the Desert, and its effects - - - 250

Revival of the project for a Canal. — A Railroad will now be

more easy to execute - ... - 256

CHAP. XV.

Journey through the Land of Goshen, — the Israelites- - 259

Pelusium, Menzaleh, and Tanis, the Zoan of Scripture - 259

Works of the Hebi-ew captives still seen there - - 259

Arrival at Damietta, the chief port of the Nile - - 259

Cross the whole of the Delta, from east to west - - 260

Visit the ruined sites of Busivis, Thaubastis, and Sais - 260

Arrival at Alexandria, and reception there ... - 260

Captain Berrington, a traveller for the interior of Africa - 260

CONTENTS. IX

Page

Excursions on the Nile and in the Delta . . _ 261

Kindness of the Orientals to the brute creation - - 261

Fire and docility of the Arab horse, — Description of this by Job 261

Anecdote of an Arab merchant and voracious pigeons - 262

Accompany Mr. Maxwell and Captain Bramsen to Cairo - 266

CHAR XVI.

First interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha - - . 267

Suggestions offered to him for improving Egypt - - 268

Education of Egyptian youths in Europe and America - 269

Employment of these as teachers among his people - - 270

Increase of knowledge Avould bring increased wealth - 271

Improvement required in the quality of Egyptian cotton - 272

This certain to attract British merchants and capital - 272

Intercourse with Europe thus made profitable - - 273

Kesults of the adoption of these suggestions - - - 274

Ke-opening of the Canal between the Nile and Red Sea - 275

Reasons assigned by the Pasha for deferring this - - 276

His views of English policy, from their past history - - 277
Commission for me to purchase ships for him in India, and

encourage the merchants there to trade with Egypt - 280

CHAP. XVII.

Departure for India by Suez and the Red Sea - - 282

Harem of the Pasha going to the Holy War - - 283

Mounts Horeb and Sinai, Ailoth and Ezion Geber - - 284

Fearful storm and loss of life and property - _ . 286

Arrival at Jedda, the port of Mecca - - - . 290

Extreme illness, and reception by an Arab merchant - - 290

Visit from Othman, a Scotsman become a Turk - - 291

Removal on board an English ship in the harbour - - 292

Kindness and attention of Captain Boog. — Speedy recovery - 292

Visit from M. Burckhardt, who came down from Mecca - 293

Anecdote of Othman, and the Scotch Catechism - - 294

Mistranslation of the Scriptures into Arabic - - 297

Letters of Mr. Burckhardt from Mecca ... 298

CONTENTS.

Anecdote of an Indian Fakir and his prayers
Successful issue of faitli and perseverance

Page
309
311

CHAP. XVIII.

Voyage from Jedda by Lolieia and Hodeida to Mocha - 313

Hydrographical information acquired . . _ 313

Arrival at Mocha. — Reception at the Residency - - 314

Agreeable party of seven English gentlemen - - - 315

Occupations and researches while at Mocha / - - 316

Letter to Mr. Burckhardt on the fate of Dr. Seetzen - 317

Lines adapted to the air, "Go where Glory waits thee" - 318

Peculiarities at Mocha. — Head-dresses of the Samaulies - 324

Abstinence from coffee, and substitute of ghasheb - - 325

Anecdote of an Indian Princess. — English tea - - 326

Visit to the port of Aden. — Letter to Mr. Forbes - - 329

Call at the Arabian port of Macullah ... 333

Singular disease and deaths among the crew . - - 333

Influence of the Moon at sea. — Pythagoras and Moore - 334

Safe arrival in the harbour of Bombay - - - 336

CHAP. XIX.

Entrance to the noble harbour of Bombay ... 337

Inquiries of Commercial Houses and their results - - 339

Private acquaintances speedily formed ... 339

Domesticated with intelligent and agreeable friends - - 340

Competition of Hindoo and Chinese agriculturists - - 343

Remarkable English women in Bombay - . . 345

Hospitality and gaieties of general society ... 347

Excursions to the Cavern Temples of the Hindoos - . 348

Basaltic pillars. — Geological Explorers ... 343

Adventures with Tigers in the Island of Salsette - - 350

Lines addressed to my Wife, with the rose-dew of Egypt - 356

CHAP. XX.

Mercantile want of confidence in the Egyi^tian Pasha - 359

Relinquishment of the Red Sea trade for the present - - 359

CONTENTS.

XI

Page

Appointment to command an Arab frigate, the Humai/oon Shah 360

Information given against me to the Solicitor-General - 361

Visits to the Chief Secretary and the Governor - - 361

Wish of Sir Evan Nepean to make me an American - - 362

Absurdity and injustice of the licensing system - - 363

Causes of this singular and unjust legislation - - 364

Correspondence with the Bombay Government - - 366

Eefusal to allow me to remain in India ... 370

Permission at length given to return to Egypt - . 384

Heavy pecuniary losses sustained thereby - . . 337

CHAP. XXI.

Voyage from Bomba}^ to Suez by the Red Sea - . 388

Agreeable and accomplished companion, Mr. Babington - 389

Preparations for sea, and farewell visits - . . 339

Liberality of my friends, Mr. Erskinc and Wedderburn . 389

Lines on leaving Bombay in the Prince of Wales, cruiser - 390

Southern passage beyond the Equator.— Heavy gales - - 392

Island of Diego Garcia. — Approach to the African coast - 392

Extract from the Manuscript Journal of our voyage - - 394

Mons Felix, an error for the Mountain of the Elephant - 395

Illustrations of Agatharchides and Ovid.— Halcyons - - 398

Arrival and stay at Mocha, and thence to Jedda - - 402

Peculiarities of the Red Sea — its crystal clearness - - 405

Beauty of the Coral formations on the reefs - . - 406

Difficulties and facilities of its navigation ... 407

Transformation of shoals to habitable islands - . . 410

Anomalies in the tides of the Red Sea - . .411

Lines to the air of " Montalambert " in a calm - - 411

CHAP. XXIL

Arrival at Suez, and jom-ney across the Desert - - 413

Short stay at Cairo. — INIeet Mr. Burckhardt there - - 4 1 3

Meet also Signor Belzoni, on his way to India - - 414

Dissuade him from the attempt, for reasons assigned - - 415

Hasten to Alexandria, to see the Pasha there - - - 415

Mr, Benjamin Babington remains at Cairo - - - 416

XU CONTENTS.

Page

Tribute to the character of my friend and companion - 416

Explanation to the Pasha, of want of confidence in India - 417

Recommend him to grant a Convention of Commerce - 417

Liberal concessions made by this Convention - - - 418

Contrast of its terms with former exactions . - - 420

Undertake to be the bearer of this to India - . - 422

Necessity for making this journey overland . - - 422

Preparations to traverse Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Persia - 422

Reasons for adopting the Oriental costume ... 423

Appointed as Envoy of the Pasha to India - - - 423

Safety of being a Turk Danger of being an Englishman - 424

AUTOBIOGEAPHY

JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM.

CHAPTER I.

Voyage througli tlie Straits of Scio to Smyrna. — Becalmed oil
the Island of Mytelene or Lesbos. — Lines to the Setting Moon,
air — "Fly not yet." — Anchor in the Bay of Smyrna. — Sjolen-
did scene. — First landing in Asiatic Turkey. — First impres-
sions.— European or Frank society. — Country residences. —
Sunday evening parties. — Balls and petit soupers. — Anec-
dote of an English captain as conjuror. — Turkish governor
and Greek coiner of money. — Lord Byron. — Mr. Hobhouse.
— Mr. Cockerell and Mr. Forster. — Mr. Fiott's adventurous
journey across Asia IMInor. — Captain Beaufort's survey of
Caramania.— Fascinations of the soirees of Madame Marracini.
— Coup-de-soleil, and severe delirious fever. — Anecdote of
Captain Hope of the Salsette frigate. — Arrogance of mer-
chant ships giving convoy.— Voyage home and safe arrival.

I WAS now about to tread, for the first time, the soil
of Asia, and ^yas glad when the abatement of the
gale enabled us to shake out all our reefs and
make sail for Smyrna. In our course towards this,

VOL. II. B

2 CLEAR THE STRAITS OF SCIO.

WG passed tlirougli the Straits of Scio^ having that
island on the west, and the coast of Asia Minor, with
the cave of the Erythrean Sybil, on the east. As a
picture of marine scenery, this is perhaps the most
lovely throughout the whole of the Archipelago : —
the grandeur of its mountains, the fertility of its slop-
ing shores, and the brilliance given to the whole by
the numerous villages and villas on the slopes of Scio
particularly, are really enchanting.

After clearing the Straits of Scio by its narrow
entrance from the north, we passed close by the Island
of Lesbos or Mytelene, the home of the poets Ter-
pander, Alcseus, and Sappho, as fertile in subjects for
reflection as any spot we had passed, and appear-
ing to preserve all its ancient fertility and beauty.
We were becalmed off this island during the night;
when one of the most brilliant moonlights imaginable,
such as are never seen in our northern latitudes, made
it delicious to remain on deck and enjoy the balmy
air, the exquisite perfume, and profound stillness
which combined to make up an Elysium of delight.
Before leaving England, I had often listened with
pleasure to the favourite air of my beloved wife, —
" Fly not yet," from one of Moore's Melodies ; and,
adapted to that air, I employed the leisure of the
midnight watch in penning the following lines to

LINES TO THE SETTING MOON. 3

tlio Moon, which was too rapidly declining in the
west.

TO THE SETTING MOON.
I.

Fly not yet ! thou radiant Moon,
Nor sink on Thetis' lap so soon :
Those rays, that light the western skies,
Still conjure up the magic ties

Of Love's endearing chain ;
Ties that defy e'en hoary Time,
Or change of scene, or cliange of clime.
While round this heart, with truth still glowing,
Nature's purple tide is flowing.

Oh ! stay, — Oh ! stay ;
Nor let the web thy beams have wove
In Memorj^'s loom for her I love

So soon be rent in twain.

II.

Thy silver orb recalls the hour
When, at her touch, soft Music's power
Through every sense transported stole.
As o'er her song my captive soul

In silent wonder hung ;
For such the enchantment of her strain,
That bliss itself thrilled high with pain,
But, as I fled those maddening pleasures,
Soft she sighed, in Lydian measures,

Oh! stay, — Oh! stay.

4 SAIL UP THE BAY OF SMYENA.

The hours that glide on rapid wing

Such dear deh'glits too seldom bring.

Then fly not yet, so soon !

III.

" Fly not yet ! " — what spell divine
Breathes o'er the cadence of that line,
In dulcet notes like those which sung

Creation's dawning day.
E'en here, amid the holier balm
Of Grecian skies, in midnight calm,
While mortal sounds are sunk in slumbers,
Her sigh still breathes these melting numbers,

"Oh! stay, —Oh! stay."
And thus, sweet Moon, thy setting light
Prolongs the dream that Iiangs to-night

On that remembered lay.

In tlie morning, tlie sea-breeze setting In fresh and
fair, we sailed up the Bay of Smyrna, the whole
aspect of which is at once grand and beautiful, the
mountains rising to a great height on all sides, with
fertile plains near the sea. The city Is seated on the
rounded bosom of a hill, covering it in a convex and
at the same time semicircular form. Its summit being
crowned by the extensive ruins of an old Genoese
castle and fortification, by which It was defended
when In possession of that enterprising people. All

SMYllXA. 5

the recollections of Homer, whose reputed birthplace
was here, on the hanks of the Moles, that runs into
the sea, — of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse, of
which Smyrna was one of the most distinguished, — of
the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, a native of this city,
who had lived and conversed with the apostles, being
a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, who is believed
to indicate his pupil, under the title of " the Angel of
the Church in Smyrna," and to whom the Apocalypse
is dedicated ; — all these rushed upon my mind while
viewing the scene before me. But I repress the in-
dulgence of my desire to give expression to all that
I felt.

After taking up our anchorage among the numer-
ous shipping now in port, and within half a mile of
the shore, among which it was difficult to find a good
berth in so thickly crowded a fleet, we made the ship
secure, and in an hour after I made my first landing
in a Turkish city. Here everything was so new,
that it at once bewildered and delighted. Bearded and
turbanned Turks, on splendid horses gorgeously ca-
parisoned, passed through the streets with the stately
and magnificent air of persons born to subjugate and
rule ; camels in long trains, bearing merchandise to
and from the magazines or warehouses ; Turkish
women, moving along like bulky ghosts, enveloped in

B 3

" POPULATION OF SMYRNA.

in multitudinous muslin robes, with their faces con-
cealed, except the large dark liquid gazelle eyes,
which made their looks penetrate the whole frame of
those on whom they cast them with an intenseness
of which the European eye would seem incapable.
Next came the varied physiognomy and costume
of the Armenians, with their long robes and bulky
calpacs ; the Albanian Greeks, with their short
white petticoats, velvet and embroidered jackets, and
jaunty little skull caps, often adorned with natural
flowers ; the sturdy peasant, with his brown skin and
furrowed bull's neck, from the heart of Asia Minor ;
and the Turkish troops, literally bristling with arms
to the teeth, in matchlock, pistol, yataghan, khandjar,
and scimetar, looking as fierce as though destruc-
tion was their pastime. It was like the moving scene of
a drama rather than of real life, and was doubly ex-
citing from the suddenness with which we were
plunged into it, from the comparative uniformity of a
long sea voyage.

My ship being consigned to the house of Lee and
Sons, established more than a century at Smyrna, I
was invited to take up my residence with them on
shore, which I gladly accepted ; and by this means
soon became introduced to the most agreeable society
of the place. Mr. John Lee, the head of the firm
hero, was assisted by two of his nephews, Mr.

EUROPEAN SOCIETY AT SMYRNA. 7

Ricliarcl and James Brant, whose father was an ex-
tensive silk merchant in London, and whose mother,
a native of Smyrna, was Mr. Lee's sister. The con-
sul at this time was Mr. Werrj, an old officer of
seventy years of age, who had been at his post for
lialf a century, and was more than half a Turk in his
opinions, manners, and practices. Besides these, who
might be called the heads of the European circle at
Smyrna, there were about a dozen English merchants
and their families, three or four Americans, Mr. Van
Lennap, the Dutch consul, of almost as long standing
as Mr. Werry, and the consuls of France, Piedmont,
Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Ame-
rica, and many smaller states, making, with their
families and those of the Levantines and Greeks into
which they had married, a circle of from two to three
hundred of European origin and descent.

These chiefly resided in v. hat was called the Frank
quarter of Smyrna, wdiere the streets and houses
were after French models, with port-cocheres, and
courts or gardens in the centre, around wdiich the
dwelling stood; while the Turkish quarter — built
almost wholly of wooden houses — had narrow and
tortuous streets, and was everywhere as dirty as the
Frank quarter was clean. What constituted the great
charm, however, of Smyrna as a residence, was the

B 4

8 EUROPEAN SOCIETY AT SMYRNA.

numerous and beautiful villages in its environs, par-
ticularly Boudjali, Bournabat, and Sedikui, at each
of which were villas and delightful gardens, to which
the Europeans retire from their counting- houses every
night during the summer, and where they sometimes
remain for a week or more at a time in the season,
when business was not pressing. Sundays and fete
days, which seemed to occur even more frequently
than the Sabbath, were the great daj's for visiting ;
and on these occasions the houses were open to
receive all who called. The hours of meals were,
breakfast at eight, dinner at one, and supper at eight ;
this last being the principal meal of the day ; and,
after the ancient French mode, the visitors usually
assembled an hour before supper for conversation,
and, after the meal, wound up the evening by a dance,
to which no invitations w^ere given, but at which
every one once introduced to the family were sure of
a cordial reception. At such parties it was not
unusual for the Turkish governor of Smyrna, or some
pulent or distinguished Turk, to be present, with his
suite, as a guest or looker on ; while in the dance
would be mingled European ladies and gentlemen in
the latest fashions of London or Paris, long-robed
Armenians, short-kilted Greeks, English and French
naval ofhcers, in their blue uniforms and gold epau-

AMUSEMENTS. 9

lets, aiul European travellers making Smyrna tlicir
head-quarters, in their ill-suiting Asiatic dresses; with
a larger number of beautiful female forms and faces
among the young Greeks and Levantines, than were
ever seen among an equally limited circle of fashion
and beauty in any city in Europe. The summer and
autumnal evenings are so soft and balmy in tliis
delicious climate, that during these festive entertain-
ments every door and window can be thrown open with
impunity ; and nothing was more frequent than at the
close of the dance to see the partners retire together
for a walk in the garden, where all the perfume and
freshness of the open air might be enjoyed without
risk to health.

At two of these Sunday evening parties, one at
Bournabat and the other at Sedikui, which means
" the village of love," I witnessed two scenes which
may be worth recording. An English naval officer.
Captain Mainwaring, commanding the Kite sloop-of-
war, then in the harbour, had learnt in Sicilj' various
tricks of legerdemain, and was solicited to exhibit
his powers, between the dance, to the assembled com-
pany. His feats of skill were intensely admired,
and created universal satisfaction. As a final exhi-
bition, he offered to take any quantity of blood from
the complexion of anv young lady of the party, with

10 LEGERDEMAIN.

an assurance tliat no possible harm should happen to
her from the process, but that she sliould be infinitely
more beautiful at its close. It was some time before
any one could be found ready to submit to the ope-
ration; but at length, a young Greek, extremely
lovely and about sixteen, tempted perhaps by the
promise of increased beauty, consented. A large
wash-basin being placed on the table, her head was
held over it, and the Captain made what was sup-
posed to be an incision with a lancet, just beneath
tlie under lip, holding at the same time a silver
funnel pressed close to the wound. The crimson
stream began to flow immediately, and after a tole-
rable quantity had escaped, the relatives and friends
became somewhat alarmed, and asked the young lady
how she felt. Her reply was, that she hardly knew,
except that dizziness and faintness were fast seizing
on her, and she hoped the Captain would soon desist.
She had scarcely uttered the words, however, before
she fainted away in a swoon, looking as pale as death.
The shrieks from the female spectators were piercing,
and tliese were soon followed by execrations against
the murderer of this youthful beauty, as the Captain
was now considered. The tumult, indeed, became
so general, and the alarm and indignation so in-
fectious, that there was scarcely a person in the

EFFECT OF THE MIND UPON THE BODY. 11

whole assembly unmoved ; and a party, which a few
minutes before had been remarkable for its hilarity
and joyousness, was now changed to one of sadness
and gloom. There were two medical men among
the visitors, and both were called in to look upon the
supposed corpse, when, after the most diligent search,
no trace of an incision could be found, as none had
really been made ; the whole being a trick performed
by having a funnel with a double casing, in the space
between which a quantity of crimson fluid, exactly
like blood in colour and general appearance, which
was permitted to flow throngh a valve under the
operator's guidance ; the fainting, therefore, was the
mere effect of the mind upon the body, from the young
lady believing that she was losing blood by the ope-
ration.

The other incident was this. The Turkish Gover-
nor being present as a guest, and Captain Main-
waring's feats having been described to him, he said
he would produce a Greek who should surpass them
all. Tiie soldiers of his suite were accordingly sent
to bring a man from the village prison, where he had
been confined for some months for non-payment of
taxes, he being one of the strolling class of conjurors,
who earn their money easily and spend it freely, and
are almost always in pecuniary difficulties. Tlie

12 A GREEK COXJUROR.

man came, and certainly performed [some tricks that
would have been thought wonderful in Europe ; and
at length, as the climax of his art, turned copper
coins into silver, and silver coins into gold. This
astonished the Governor beyond all the rest ; and he
seemed really to doubt whether this was a mere
conjuring trick, or whether it was not an actual trans-
mutation of the metals, in the possibility of which,
through alchemy, all the orientals believe. He ex-
pressed his admiration accordingly in the highest
terms. Some benevolent persons present, thinking it
a good opportunity to perform an act of charity, went
in a body to the Governor, and entreated him, as a
reward to the Greek, to issue an order for his release
from prison, for which they would all be very
grateful. To this the shrewd Turkish dignitary re-
plied, that if he had been Imprisoned for murder or
any other crime which he could not clear himself of,
it would be a different matter ; but as his imprison-
ment was solely on account of his not paying his
taxes, and he had the power to clear himself of this
whenever he pleased, as he could convert copper into
silver and silver Into gold, it was his own fault if
he remained in confinement a day longer. The
Governor therefore recommended him first to pay
Ills taxes bv this transmutation, after which he should

MADAME MAEEACIKI. 13

be liappy to place him at the head of his own trea-
sury, which was now too often empty, but which his
art would always keep full.

The principal place of fashionable reunion in
Smyrna itself, was the house of Madame Marracini,
a Greek lady, widow of an Italian husband, who had
two charming daughters ; the eldest peculiarly lovely
and fascinating, and a handsome son, with his ex-
quisitely beautiful Greek wife. At this house there
were two receptions in the week, and they were
always attended by the best European society of the
place, as well as by some of the wealthiest of the
Greek and Armenian merchants, and often by the
Governor and his suite. Lord Byron and Mr. Hob-
house, who were then on their travels in the East,
and had only recently left Smyrna, were frequent
visitors here ; and Mr.Cockerell and Mr. Forster, archi-
tects, now here, made it their constant place of resort.
The elder daughter soon after this accepted Mr.
Eorster's offer of marriage, and he took her with him
to Liverpool, where his father held some high office
under the corporation, and he himself was appointed
architect of the town, where they lived many years
in happiness, and enjoyed universal esteem. Mr.
Forster had just returned to Smyrna at tins period,
after an excursion in Greece, where Mr. Cockerell

14 MR. FIOTT.

and himself had discovered the Temples of Tegea, and
offered the sculptures and bas-reliefs to the British
Government ; but though they were of the greatest
interest in every point of view, the offer was rejected,
and they were purchased by the King of Bavaria for
the museum at Munich, where I had the pleasure to
see them, most advantageously arranged, in the
Glyptotheca of that city, in 1846.

Among other English travellers in the East at this
period was Mr. Fiott, a gentleman who arrived in
Smyrna, after a most enterprising journey through
the heart of Asia Minor, in parts where no European
had before travelled ; and his arrival created a great
sensation, from admiration of the courage which such
an undertaking, in a European dress, evinced. I
understood that he then enjoyed what is called a
Travelling Fellowship from the University of Cam-
bridge, of which he was a member, receiving a small
income of 300^. a year, for three years, on condition
of his visiting foreign parts, and communicating from
time to time the result of his observations ; a plan
worthy of adoption by all the learned bodies of
Europe, but with more liberal allowance of means, if
any valuable or important discoveries were expected
to be made by the recipients. After an interval of
twenty years (from 1812 to 1832), I had the pleasure

CAPTAIN BEAUFORT. 15

of again meeting this same Mr. Fiott, in the person
of Dr. John Lee, of Hartwell House, near Aylesbury,
the owner of a fine estate, coining to him on condition
of his assuming the name of its original possessor ;
and I liave for twenty years more (from 1832 to 1854)
enjoyed the frequent intercourse and friendship of tlie
same estimable gentleman ; a scholar, a pliilanthropist,
and a patriot, and the friend of every enterprise or
undertaking calculated to advance the freedom and
happiness of the human race.

It was at this period also that Captain (now Ad-
miral Sir Francis) Beaufort was employed in the
Frederickstein frigate, surveying the coast of Cara-
mania, and the southern shores of Asia Minor, the
results of which he subsequently published in his
agreeable and instructive volumes, which obtained
for him the reputation of being one of the most
scientific and accurate hydrographers of the age, and
ultimately led to his becoming the chief of the hydro-
graphical department of the Admiralty. Captain
Beaufort made Smyrna his head-quarters, and was
as popular among all classes here for his quiet and
gentlemanly qualities and manners, as for his bravery,
science, and naval reputation.

My ship having received some injury by a Greek
polacca running foul of her while coming to an

16 MY ILLNESS AND RECOVEllY.

anchor in a lubberly style, it became necessary to
" heave her out," tlie sea phrase for turning her
nearly bottom upwards, at the careening place, in
order to examine and repair the injury. In attending
this always delicate and difficult operation, my long
exposure to the sun caused me to be visited by a
coup de soleil, and this brought on a brain fever,
under which I was prostrate in strength and delirious
in mind for nearly a fortnight ; during which it was
said by my friends and attendants, that I dwelt almost
constantly on subjects connected with Oriental life
and manners, sometimes imagining myself to be a
Sultan, and addressing my surrounding ministers and
officers of state in the true Cambj-ses vein. Nothing
could exceed the attention of the kind family of
Mr. Lee and his nephews, the Brants, during my
illness, which would have been of much longer
duration, and perhaps fatal, but for their aid.

My recovery being complete, and all our prepara-
tions made for the return voyage to England, I paid
a round of visits, took leave with regret, and went on
board. As at this period the Archipelago was
swarming with pirates from the Morea, chiefly
Greeks, but associated with deserters, escaped con-
victs, and renegades of all nations, I thought it
might be acceptable to some of the unarmed coasters

OFFER TO CONVOY OTHER SHIPS. 17

and smaller craft navigating westward, to have the
protection of an armed vessel like my own, with
twelve guns, musketry, and small arms, and a stout
and resolute crew. On making the first indication
of sailing — the fore-topsail loose and blue Peter at
the mast-head — we fired a gun, and hoisted the usual
signal for convoy at the peak. Just at this moment
the Salsette frigate. Captain Hope, entered the bay on
her return from a short cruise ; when hearing a gun
and seeing a signal for convoy, which ships of war
alone generally give ; and seeing, moreover, by the
low, graceful hull, taunt masts, square yards, and
general style of the rigging, that there was some-
thing of a naval cut in our vessel, he made the signal
to show our number, which, not being a ship of war,
we were of course unable to do. As soon, therefore,
as the frigate had anchored. Captain Hope sent a
midshipman in the jolly-boat to command the im-
mediate attendance of the commander of the offending
vessel to answer for his conduct. Of course I
immediately obej'ed the command, and in half-an-
hour I stood on the frigate's quarter-deck, where
Captain Hope, surrounded by his officers, who evi-
dently expected a scene, said to me, in a tone of
genuine authority, " How dare you. Sir, to make
signal for convoy, not holding his Majesty's commis-

VOL. II. C

18 INTERVIEW WITH CAPTAIN HOPE.

sion as a naval officer ?" To which I replied, with a
firmness evidently not expected, — " Sir, I not only
dare to do so now, but to repeat it if required : and
dare you to haul down such signal at your peril."
The answer seemed rather to amuse than to offend,
by its very extravagance, and was received by Captain
Hope with a hearty laugh, which lit up his fine
features and benevolent countenance : " Oh 1 Sir," he
replied, " I suppose you come armed with Vattell
and Puffendorff, to show me it is not contrary to the
law of nations ; or with De Lolme and Blackstone to
prove that it is part of the constitutional right of a
British subject ; but you will admit, I suppose, that
it is not accordant with the naval regulations." I re-
plied, that though I was not unacquainted with the
high authorities named, yet this was a case not
likely to be provided for in their books ; and as to
regulations for the naval service, I could not be
held amenable to them : but unless Captain Hope
could point out to me some law or authorised regula-
tion, by which an armed merchant vessel was for-
bidden to offer protection to unarmed ones who chose
to sail under her convoy, I should still keep the
signal flying, and be happy to take under our wing
as many vessels as chose to accompany us." " Oli !
oh ! " he replied, laughing, " I see you are a much

HIS IRONICAL MARK OF RESPECT. 19

greater man than I had expected to find — so great,
indeed, that I cannot think of returning yovi in the
jolly-boat, which will not be large enough to hold
you. Where's the boatswain? Clear the launch,
• — hoist her out, and let her be manned with double-
banked oars, to take on board his ship this great
merchant commander ! " The shrill whistle of the
boatswain and his mates Avere soon heard piping out
the launch, amid the laughter of officers and men, for
all of them thoroughly understood this piece of prac-
tical irony and satire'; and in a few minutes the launch
was afloat, with a double-banked crew and coxswain
and a master's mate to escort me on board — the huge
size of the launch strikingly contrasting with the
simple object for which it was employed.

During the transit, however, I meditated my re-
venge, which was ample and complete. The officer
who conveyed me in the launch, felt the sort of in-
dignity displayed towards me in this practical naval
joke ; and his sympathies were accordingly enlisted
on my behalf. I proposed to him, therefore, after
some conversation, that the launch should board my
ship on the off-side from the frigate, which happened
to be the lee or proper side for such a purpose, and
that the launch's crew should all step on board and
weigh our anchor, an affair of five minutes only, as

c 2

20 MY EEVENGE.

we were hove short in five fathoms water, and therefore
had a very small range of cable out. While the fri-
gate's men were doing this, all our own crew were
ordered aloft, by which we were enabled to do what
can only be accomplished in ships of war with all
hands, namely, loose every sail at once, and sheet
home and hoist them to the mast-head ; so that with
this double crew, — one on deck heaving in the anchor,
and the other aloft making sail, — we were under way
in less than five minutes from the launch reaching us.
We then fired a gun in triumph, and bore away under
crowded canvas, followed by about a dozen smaller
vessels bound to the Greek islands who had accepted
our protection, as much, no doubt, to the astonish-
ment of the frigate's officers and crew, as to all others
who had witnessed this unusual rapidity without
knowing its cause.

We soon cleared the capes of the Bay of Smyrna,
saw all our little convoy safe to their destination, and
then made the best of our way to England, stopping
only at Gibraltar to fill up our water, encountering
very heavy gales in the British Channel in December,
and reached the Thames on Christmas-day, rejoicing
again to enjoy this festive season in the bosom of my
family and friends.

21

CHAP. II.

New phase of life. — Gaiety and pleasure in London. — Ap-
pointed to command the Scipio for the Mediterranean. — First
interest about India and its commercial monopoly. — Meeting
at the Mansion-house for the renewal of the Company's char-
ter.— Alderman Waithman and Sir William Curtis. — Leave
London for Portsmouth. — Domestic calamity. — Liberality of
the ship's owners. — My wife and child join me. — Scene at
Gibraltar. — Female patriotism and loyalty, — Sail for Malta.
— Sudden gale and great danger. — The lost thimble, a first
misfortune in life. — Singular obstruction to the progress of
the fleet. — Immense swarm of Locusts drowned in the sea.
— Recorded instances of similar enormous hosts. — Islands of
Zambro and Pantellaria. — Cape Bon. — First sight of Sicily,
— History and poetry of the island. — Arrival at Malta, and
short stay there.

Mt stay on shore after tlils voyage introduced me to
a new phase of life, and the most agreeable that I had
yet experienced. The owners of the William, being
French gentlemen, had sold the ship and cargo, both
of which passing into other hands, I had no disposi-
tion to continue the connection, and accordingly re-
signing my command, had a month or two of leisure
on my hands for enjoyment ; and xoho can drink in so
much pleasure in so short a time as sailors arriving
c 3

22 NEW PHASE OF LIFE.

liome after a tempestuous vojage, such as the latter
half of ours had been.

I was furnished, by the European friends I had
made at Malta and Smyrna, with introductions to
their relations and connections in London ; and my
days and nights were spent in the gayest circles, in
the enjoyment of dinners, musical parties, balls, and
other entertainments, with such visits to the opera
and theatre as the intervals of private parties ad-
mitted, till pleasure itself began to be wearisome, and
I longed to return to the sea, and to duty again. I
accordingly soon obtained the command of another
and larger ship, the Scijno, belonging to the firm of
St. Barbe, Green, and Nicholls, in Mincing Lane, on
highly liberal terms, for my second voyage to Smyrna,
touching, as usual, at Gibraltar and Malta in the
way ; being sufficiently well armed and manned to
sail without convoy if more convenient, or to join
with any other vessel of similar equipments for mu-
tual protection.

It was at this period (1812), that I heard, for the
first time, anything to interest me about Lidia and
its affairs. On passing by the Mansion House in
London, I observed a large placard announcing a
public meeting then holding in the Egyptian Room,
on the subject of the East Lidia Company's charter,

MK. ALDERMAN WAITIOIAN. 23

then soon about to expire, and the renewal of which
was to be advocated by the Corporation of the City
of London. My curiosity being awakened, I entered
th^ building, and found a large and elegantly dressed
audience assembled, containijig quite as many ladies as
gentlemen. The speaker then addressing it was Mr.
Alderman Waithman, who had moved an amendment
to the original resolution recommending the renewal
of the charter, the substance of which amendment
was, that commercial monopolies were injurious to
the nation granting them, even when the individuals
in whose favour such monopolies were established,
benefited by them ; but that in the present instance
both the nation and the monopolists suffered: — the
nation, by the exclusion of its subjects generally
from the benefits of the trade with India and Chma,
comprehending nearly half the inhabitants of the
globe; and the monopolists, by their annual losses
in the very trade of which they had exclusive pos-
session, by their extravagant manner of conducting
it — their original capital being six millions sterling,
— and their debt having increased from year to year
till it amounted to more than twenty millions ; so
that, in fact, as a Trading Company they v.'ere insol-
vent, and really resembled the popular fiction of the
dog in the manger, as they did not enjoy the benefits
c 4

24 SIR WILLIAM CURTIS.

of the trade themselves, and yet resisted every at-
tempt on the part of others to participate in it.

The worthy alderman sustained his position by
statements and arguments, so cogent as it appeared
to me, that in my ignorance of public bodies and
their proceedings, I thought his amendment was sure
to be carried by an overwhelming majority — conceiv-
ing— alas! how innocently! — that reason and justice
would carry all before them. When he resumed his
seat, however, the hisses and murmurs of the large
assembly greatly predominated over the marks of
sympathy or approbation ; and I had the mortifi-
cation to find myself the only one, on the row or
bench on which I sat, that applauded by clapping of
hands, which I did most lustily nevertheless.

Immediately after Alderman Waithman, rose Sir
William Curtis, a wealthy ship biscuit baker and
contractor, and a large proprietor of East India
stock, who, though rather renowned for the absence
than the presence of much wisdom, was, nevertheless,
one of the most popular aldermen of London, and
celebrated for his gastronomic fame, turtle and cham-
pagne dinners, and civic hospitality. He was re-
ceived with the most boisterous applause, even before
he had opened his lips — so entirely satisfied were
the audience, apparently, that what he was going to

niS ORIGINAL VIEAVS. 25

say would be agreeable to them. His speech was
certainly original^ and highly characteristic of the
man. He said, in substance, it was all very well for
the honourable alderman who had just sat down to
come forward with his statistics, by which a man
might prove anything, and with his arguments, which
were not worth the trouble of refuting ; it would, no
doubt, answer the speaker's purpose in increasing
his popularity among the enemies of our glorious
constitution, who wanted to pull down all established
institutions, beginning with the East India Company,
and then passing on to the House of Lords, the
Established Church, and at last the very Crown
itself. But he, Alderman Curtis, and his friends,
had come forward to stand by the altar and the
throne, to uphold whatever was established, and to
resist all innovations. He knew enough of the Hin-
doos and the Chinese to know that they would never
trade with any other parties than the Honourable
East India Company ; and as to the opening their
covmtries to the rabble that would be sure to find
their way there, if once the charter were abolished
and the trade and intercourse made free, he was
quite certain that before a year was over, we should
be forcibly expelled from China — we should lose
our glorious empire in India altogether, and then

26 EAST INDIA company's CHARTER.

tlie sun of England's greatness would be set for
ever !

His speech, though short, was repeatedly inter-
rupted by vociferous applause, and his portly body
and round full rubicund face seemed lighted up with
more than its usual tints of purple and crimson, in
which the juice of the grape and the good cheer of
his brother alderman, the cook and confectioner Birch,
who furnished forth the city feasts, contended for
the mastery. When the motion was put from the
chair. Alderman Waithman's free-trade amendment
was lost by an overwhelming majority, and the origi-
nal resolution recommending the renewal of the East
India Company's charter carried unanimously; for
the minority was so small that none held up their
hands when the original resolution was put to the vote.

I returned from the meeting as much astonished as
I was disgusted at the result. I remembered, when
ten or twelve years younger, before the death of Pitt
or Fox, reading the debates in Parliament, then scan-
tily reported in the public papers ; and being struck
with the fact, that the arguments of the Whigs
seemed to me so convincing, compared with those of
tlie Tories, that I could never comprehend how it
happened that the votes were always in favour of the
latter. But anything so palpably gross as the ex-

TRIUMPH OF FREE-TRADE PRINCIPLES. 27

liibition at the Mansion-house I had never before
experienced.

At this period I had not the most remote idea that
I should ever visit India myself; still less that 1
should take so prominent a part in advocating and
enforcing the unpopular views of Mr. Alderman
Waithman, as enunciated at the meeting in question.
But though for the time powerfully impressed with
the trutli, the whole subject soon passed away from my
mind, having other more pressing claims to attend
to ; yet when I was thrown, by a combination of un-
expected circumstances, into India itself, and could see
with my own eyes, and hear with my own ears, the
evidences by which I was surrounded, I received my
convictions from original sources ; and though, like
Mr. Waithnian, at first in a miserable minority, I
have happily lived to see the whole country converted
to my views, and the results I predicted, of advan-
tage to India and to England, more than realised
and acknowledged by the Crown, the Legislature,
and the people.

Dui'ing my last voyage, my dear wife had given
birth to a second daughter, which was about three
months old at the time of my arrival, and her ex-
treme beauty, even at the period of my first seeing
her, was remarked by all as something too perfect to

28 DOMESTIC CALAMITY.

last ; but she grew in loveliness as well as in endear-
ing ways, till her sixth month, when I was about to
resume my vocation, and this rendered our parting
more than usually painful. But the calls of duty
were imperative, and I was obliged to go. The ship
being fully prepared and equipped for the voyage, we
dropped down to Gravesend, passed through the
Downs in a heavy gale, had a contrary wind and
tedious passage all the way round to Portsmouth, and
on our arrival there I received a letter containing the
unexpected and painful news of our dear child's sud-
den death by a spasmodic seizure, which instantly
stopped her breath in the very moment of laughing
hilarity in her mother's arms. It had occurred only
the day after my leaving London, and a post-mortem
examination of the body having been made, it was
found that some organic affection of the heart was
the cause of her death.

In the first impulse of the moment I intended im-
mediately to return to London; bu.t as railroads did
not then exist, the journey to and from, and my stay
in town, would have risked the loss of the convoy
about to sail for the Mediterranean, then waiting only
for a fair wind, and my duty to the owners of the ship
and cargo would not justify such a step. I wrote off
immediately by post, however, to Messrs. St. Barbe,

START FROM PORTSMOUTn. 29

Green, and Nicliolls, requesting their permission to
take my wife and only remaining child with me on
the voyage, and bade her at the same time to prepare
to join me at once. One of the owners immediately
waited on my wife in Burr Street, communicated the
consent of the firm to the wish I had expressed, and
wrote to me authorising whatever extra expenditure
I miffht think necessary for the accommodation and
comfort of my wife and child during the voyage,
leaving the amount entirely at my discretion. We
felt, as might be supposed, deeply grateful for such a
mark of kindness and confidence, and took great care
that such generosity should not be abused. The dis-
consolate mother and her sorrowing little daughter,
who was old enough (three years) to feel the affliction
of losing a playful companion and a sister, arrived at
Portsmouth, on the evening that brought intelligence
of the death of Mr. Perceval, the Prime Minister,
who was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons
by Bellingham, on the 11th of May, 1812.

We remained some days at anchor on the Mother
Bank, off Portsmouth, wind-bound ; when about the
1 5th, a north-east wind having sprung up, we sailed
with a large fleet which had been for some weeks
collecting, under the convoy of a frigate and two
sloops of war ; and passing through the Needles we

30 DELIGHTFUL VOYAGE TO GIBRALTAR.

Jiad a fine run down Channel^ and were out of sight
of land on the following day. The continually shift-
ing scenes presented by a large fleet under sail (and
this numbered more than two hundred vessels of all
sizes) was extremely favourable to the recovery of my
Avife's spirits after her recent loss; and the novelty of
everything around her was a perpetual source of de-
light to my young daughter. As neither of them
were at all affected by sea sickness, they were on
deck the whole day, and generally some portion of
the night too, as the weather was delicious, and every
day of our progress southward made the heavens more
brilliant with xrlowino; stars.

Our voyage to Gibraltar, from the prevalence of
light winds, was longer than the usual run, occupying
about a fortnight, as we anchored in the bay on the
Istof Jime. The rates of freight were at this time,
however, so high, in consequence of the war, that there
was ample margin for profit even on long voyages :
bl. a ton to Gibraltar, 11. 10s. to Malta, and 10/.
to Smyrna, were not uncommon, being at least five
times the prices paid during the subsequent years of
peace. Our stay at Gibraltar occupied about a week,
and the 4tli of June, King George the Third's birth-
day falling within it, we went on shore early In the
morning to witness the review of troops which was to

SCENE AT GIBRALTAR. 31

be made in honour of the occasion. As my wife and
I alternatelj carried our child through the streets of
Gibraltar to the parade, the little creature attracted
all eyes by its excessive beauty of feature and brilli-
ance of rosy complexion, — so utterly unlike any thing
usually seen in this garrison, where the Spanish po-
pulation are dark brown, and the few English children,
belonging to the officers or men in the fort, are pale
and languid in appearance — while this newly imported
English-born child, with its blue eyes, flaxen curls,
and rosy cheeks, was full of animation, and had a nod
or a smile for every one that approached it with ca-
resses, which were so frequent that we thought we
should never get to the parade ground. We were,
however, in good time, to hear the royal salutes fired
from the batteries and troops, which were overpower-
ingly grand, from the number and size of the cannon
and the echoes and reverberations of the rocky gal-
leries from which many of them were discharged.
The scene was terminated by all the military bands
on the ground uniting in playing the national air of
" God save the King." At this moment the tears
began to roll down my wife's cheek, and her utter-
ance was completely choked ; her child, from mere
sympathy, wept copiously also, and I found myself
so touched by the same influence as to share fullv

32 DANGEROUS GALE.

in their feelings. It was tlie first time my wife had
ever been out of England ; and the sentiment of pa-
triotism^ loyalty, pride in British supremacy, and joy
at finding English hearts and English hands here
united in so formidable and yet fascinating a form,
quite overcame her, and broke up the fountain of
tears, without sorrow, which flosved freely, and which
there was no desire to restrain.

On the following day we sailed from Gibraltar
for Malta, the fleet being now reduced to about a
hundred sail, many having left the convoy to go
into Oporto, Lisbon, and other ports on the way :
but we had not proceeded far on our way before we
encountered a sudden change of wind from the east-
ward, which came on in the middle of the night, blew
with great violence, and threw the whole fleet into
confusion. Some of the ships bore up with their
heads to the southward, others with their heads to the
northward; while others again, being slow sailers,
and having all their canvas spread, found their only
safety in flying westward before the gale. The con-
sequence was, that several of the vessels ran foul of
each other : and the whistling of the wind, the crash
of falling masts, the flapping of rent sails, and the
hoarse vociferations of the ofiicers and men from each,
made up a scene of terror. We had ourselves a

NARROWLY ESCAPE COLLISION. 33

narrow escape of being cut riglit in two amidships.
Being awakened from my sleep by the first burst of
the gale, I left my cot and leaped on deck without
stopping to dress ; and right on our weather beam was
seen, rolling down towards us, one of those heavy
sailers, deeply laden, running before the wind, breast-
ing an immense mass of foam before her prow ; and
in three minutes her stem would have cut us just
before the main chains, so that one or both would
probably have foundered from the shock. There
was really no time to give orders, so rushing myself
to the wheel, we put the helm hard~a-weather. The
ship being under full steerage way, answered her helm
immediately; and we thus came into contact side by
side, just grazing each other as we went along, till
we found an opportunity of disentangling. It was
one of those hair-breadth escapes which depend upon
self-possession and the action of a moment, where
there is no time for deliberation ; and a sea-life is
full of such, especially in the variable latitudes.

As a striking illustration of what seemingly trifling
events may be regarded as severe misfortunes, ac-
cording to the circumstances under which and the
persons to whom they occur, I may mention that
our little daughter Virginia here suffered her first
" great misfortune," as she then deemed it. Her

VOL. II. D

34 A child's first 3IISF01iTUNE.

mother had taught her to use her needle ; and she
was provided with a work-box and all the usual im-
plements and materials for a labour of three or
four hours a day at this useful art, to which she
had become much attached. On leaving the cabin
to come on deck for a short interval of time, she
negligently forgot to leave her thimble behind her,
and looking over the ship's side to watch the motion
of the waves, her hand holding fast of the bulwark
railing, the thimble dropped from her finger into the
sea. Unfortunately there was no duplicate in re-
serve ; and by no ingenuity on our part could her
mother's thimble be sufficiently reduced in size to
answer the purpose. The child's grief was intense :
all her dreams of what she was going to make and
do in the course of the voyage, were in a moment
destroyed ; and till our arrival at Malta, where it
was replaced, " the lost thimble " seemed to be her first
thought on awaking in the morning, and the last
before she went to sleep at night. She has, indeed,
often since confessed that she never remembers to
have suffered a grief more poignant than this in all
her after-life.

The easterly gale at length moderated in force, but
continued to blow from the same quarter for several
days, so that our progress in beating to windward.

SHIP IMPEDED BY DEAD LOCUSTS. 35

always at the rate of the slowest sailers in the fleet,
Avas very slight. At length the wind shifted to the
south-east, and then south, with a suffocating heat,
this being the sirocco of the Levant ; and blowing
over the great Libyan and Nuniidian deserts, comes
charged with hot and sulphurous vapours, causing a
most disagreeable sensation of a stifling and oppressive
kind. On the third day after this shift of wind,
and when we were well up abreast of Sicily, but
nearer to the African shore, we were surprised one
morning at seeing all the headmost vessels of the
fleet arrested in their course by some obstacle which
impeded the progress of each ship as she came up
with it, till the entire convoy formed an almost
straight line. On looking over the ship's side there
was seen a thick mass of brown matter, which it was
difficult to sail through with all canvas spread, it
appearing to be between the consistency of oil and tar,
or melted butter and honey. Buckets full of it were
drawn up on deck for inspection, but all we could per-
ceive was that it was some animal matter in a state of
decay, and emitting a most disagreeable odour.
Sending the buckets deeper and deeper, however,
by attaching weights to their bottom, so as to brino-
up some of the lower strata, we perceived the leo-s
and wings, and half-putrid bodies, of brown locusts,

D 2

36 IMMENSE ELIGIITS OF LOCUSTS

in a less advanced stage of decomposition than the
brown oily mass of the surface ; and we concluded
of course that the whole mass was composed of the
same materials. Desirous of ascertaining the extent
of the space occupied by it, I went to the fore-topmast
cross-trees with a glass, and sweeping the horizon
ahead and on each side of us, I perceived that it
extended as far as the eye could reach to the east,
north, and south, which presented one solid and un-
broken mass of smooth brown surface, while to the
west the open sea presented the deep blue which dis-
tinguishes the waters of the Mediterranean. The
conclusion was that some vast flight of locusts passing
from Africa to Europe, had encountered a contrary
wind in their passage, and had fallen, exhausted, into
the sea, and were there gradually decaying in the
state in which we found them.

Such flights of locusts have from time to time
been recorded in history, as marking the devastation
everywhere caused by their numbers. In the year
593, a famine was caused in Turkey and Persia by
their consumption of the fruits and grain of the fields.
In 677, Syria and Mesopotamia were overrun with
them. In 852, immense swarms of them took their
flight from the eastern regions into the west, flying
W'th such a sound that they might be mistaken for

RECOKUED IN IIISTOKY. 37

birds: they destroyed all vegetables, not sparing
even the bark of trees or the thatch of houses ; and
they devoured the corn so rapidly as to destroy, on a
computation^ a hundred and forty acres in a day.
Their daily progress was about twelve miles ; and
their movements appeared to have been regulated
by kings or leaders, who flew first and settled on the
spot which was to be visited the next day at the
same hour by the whole legion ; their movement
always commencing at sunrise. After traversing the
continent of Europe, they were driven at last into the
Baltic Sea, where, being thrown back on the shores,
they caused a dreadful pestilence by their putrefac-
tion. In 1271, all the corn fields around Milan were
destroyed by locusts; in 1339, all those of Lombardy;
and in 1541, such incredible hosts of them afliicted
Wallachia and Moldavia, that they darkened the sun
by their numbers, and ravaged all the fruits of the
earth. Volney gives a striking description of their
numbers, and the devastation they committed in Syria
and Palestine ; but the most remarkable account on
record, in modern times, is that of a gentleman of
Poonah, who was witness to an immense army of
locusts v/hich ravaged the Mahratta country in India.
The column they composed was said to have extended
five hundred miles in length ; and so compact was

D 3

38 C03IE IN SIGHT OF SICILY.

tlieir body when on the wing, that like an eclipse
they completely hid the sun, so that no shadow was
cast by any object, and some lofty tombs at a short
distance were rendered quite invisible. What added
to the horror of the scene was, that they were of the
red species of locusts, so that clustering upon the
trees, after they had stripped them of their foliage,
they turned the verdant green into a bloody hue.
The second chapter of the Book of the Prophet Joel,
describing these hosts, says emphatically : — " The
land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and
behind them a desolate wilderness : " and again, " The
sun and the moon shall be dark before them, and the
stars shall withdraw their shining."

We were heartily glad to get through this mass of
animal putrefaction, by a strong breeze from the
west, to which every ship crowded all the sail she
could spread ; and by daylight on the following morn-
ing we had the gratification of being once more in
the pure element of water, which seemed doubly
beautiful after the brown surface we had so recently
traversed. About nine o'clock we were abreast of
the uninhabited island of Zambro, at noon off Cape
Bon, at sunset abreast of the island and town of
Pantellaria; and on the following day we came in
sif;fht of Sicily.

BICJLY; ITS V AIM El) STORY. 39

Here was a new chapter of history opened for
study and investigation ; and having a good historical
library on board, we profited by our proximity to the
island to read its varied story, from the aboriginal
Sicanians to the Greeks — with the disastrous ex-
pedition of Nicias and Alcibiades — the lives of
Phalaris, Gelon, and Dionysius — of Hiero and
Thrasibulus, Timoleon, and Agathocles, as well as
of Simonides, Pindar, and Archimedes, up to its
conquest by the Romans under Marcellus, b. C. 208,
and after this its changes under the Vandals, the
Saracens, and the Normans. As an island, it is,
perhaps, one of the most beautiful and interesting in
the world — its scenery embracing every variety,
from the flame-emittino; and snow-crowned grandeur
of Mount Etna, to the softest and most fertile
valleys and plains — its ruins embracing the mighty
cities of Agrigentum, Syracuse, and Taormina; and
its mythology and poetry, the forge of Vulcan, the
residence of the Cyclops and the Sirens, and tlic
famed Scylla and Charybdis of Homer and Virgil ;
while its modern cities of Palermo, Messina, and
Catania are full of interest of another kind. All
this, and much more than can be here detailed,
formed the subject of our reading and discourses
during the intervals of duty by day and night,

D 4

40 ANCHOR AT MALTA.

till we reached Malta, where we anchored in safety
in the middle of July, to remain a week or two for
the transaction of business in disposing of a portion
of the cargo, and taking in other goods on freight
or for sale at Smyrna.

41

CHAP. III.

Stay at Malta and agreeable parties there. — Voyage tlirougli
the Greek Archipelago. — Attacked by Greek pirates near
Cerigo. — Obstinate conflict and ultimate victory. — Injury
sustained in wounded and disabled. — Succeeding storm, and
danger of shipwreck. — Island of Santorin thrown vip by
submarine volcano. — Crete or Candia, its history and asso-
ciations.— Delos, the sacred island of the Greeks. — Herodotus,
Virgil, and Horace. — Persian ' fleet. — Nicaria. — Singular
custom of sponge divers. — Samos, its ancient celebrity and
modern decay. — Pythagoras and his doctrines- — Moore's
classical odes. — Ancient traveller's description of Samos
divers. — Passage through the Straits of Scio to Smyrna. —
Plague raging in the city. — Villages happily free.

Our stay at Malta extended to about a fortnight,
whichj notwithstanding the heat of a June and July
sun, reflected from its white limestone rocks and
buildings, which is excessive, were passed most agree-
ably; my wife and her infant daughter exciting great
attention, and excursions being made for them by
friends and residents to whom we had become known,
to every part of the island, as well as to all the public
establishments and private parties in the city, in which,
Avhenever the intervals of duty admitted, I was too

42 LEAVE MALTA FOR SMYENA.

Jiappy to join them. Extreme exertion, however, to
get the ship ready for sailing by a given time, was
followed in my case, as at Smyrna on the preceding
voyage, by a coup-de-soleil and high fever.

Recovering from this, and finding no ship of war
giving convoy up the Archipelago, I formed an agree-
ment with Captain Brigham, of the ship Ilehe, of
Hull, belonging to Staniforth and Blunt of that port,
to sail together for mutual protection, as we were
each sufficiently well armed, we thought, to be a
match conjointly for any pirates we might meet ; these
being the chief enemies to be encountered in these
parts.

We accordingly left Malta on the evening of the
25th of July, and kept well together till Ave made the
coast of Greece, between Cape Droso and Cape Ma-
tapan, the southern promontory of the JNIorea. To
save the delay and risk of calling at Milo for a pilot,
we took on board a Greek at Malta who was return-
ing home, and who was thoroughly acquainted with
the navigation of the Archipelago ; and we found him
fully competent to his duties.

The weather was beautifully fine all the morning;
but in hauling round Cape Matapan, which is a bluff
rugged point, and entering the Gulf of Colokythia,
we were suddenly visited by a heavy thunderstorm,

GREEK PIRATES. 43

\vlucli burst upon us witli sucli nipulity as scarcely
to allow time to take in all sail to meet it. The ex-
ertion on mj part brought on a relapse of fever, from
which I had so recently recovered, and compelled me
to return to my cot, leaving the chief officer in charge
of the deck.

At nio-ht we lay becalmed, without a breath of air,
between the Islands of Cervi and Cerigo ; and though
the scenery was lovely, and the associations of the
most romantic and agreeable kind, yet the sense of
danger greatly marred the enjoyment of both. The
whole of this region was inhabited by a set of pirates
calling themselves descendants of the Spartans and
Lacedaemonians, and acknowledging no law but force.
Calm weather and night is the time of their harvest,
for then they steal out of the creeks and bays of
which the coast is full, with muffled oars or sweeps,
and as soon as they have ascertained the probability
that the vessel th(^y are about to attack is compa-
ratively unarmed and unprepared, they immediately
board them with overwhelming numbers, and make
them an easy prey, beheading and casting into the
sea all the crew, and reserving only such of the
officers and passengers as are likely to yield them a
ransom. A knowledge of these circumstances in-
duced us to be fully prepared for an encounter ; and

44 GREEK PIRATES.

we had all our carronades cast loose for action, matches
lighted, muskets and boarding-pikes on deck, board-
ing-nettings triced up, and all hands to quarters.
Several suspicious craft swept past us, near enough
to see these preparations, when they sheered off and
held their way, as pirates never fight for the honour
of conquest, but merely for plunder, and unresisting
captives are therefore their chief aim.

At sunrise we were boarded by an officer from a
Maltese polacca, having under his convoy a Greek
vessel bound for Malta. AVe learnt from him that
at this moment the Archipelago '\'\ as crowded with
pirates, who took their prizes into obscure ports in the
Adriatic, where they found a ready sale, after having
destroyed all evidence against them by burning the
ship's papers, and butchering every creature on board.
At sunset another Maltese cruiser, about 300 tons,
passed within hail, and sent his boat alongside, in-
forming us that he had on the previous day, a little
further to the eastward, engaged a well-armed pirate
from daybreak till noon, and ultimately drove her on
shore under Cape St. Angelo; but that another
lateen-rigged craft, with from eighty to a hundred
men on board, and well armed, was lying in wait in a
creek under the land, so as not to be visible from

ATTACKED IN THE ARCIlirELAGO. 45

without, to intercept any vessels likely to fall an
easy prey.

In consequence of this information our vigilance
Avas increased, and in a couple of hours afterwards
word was brought me in my cot, from deck, that the
large lateen-rigged pirate described by the Maltese
cruiser was in full sweep, under oars and sails, bear-
ing right down upon us. I leaped from my cot in an
instant, but fell in the act, when I requested to be
taken on deck by two of the crew, and placed on the
capstan, from whence I could see all that was passing
and give the necessary commands. Most unfortu-
nately, our companion ship, the Ilehe, was about three
miles astern, in a dead calm, while we had a lio-ht
breeze ; and as it was impossible for Captain Brigham,
thus fixed in one spot, to bring his ship into action,
we had to bear the brunt of the attack alone. It was
a perception of this on the part of the pirate that no
doubt led him to come out of his hiding place at this
particular moment. Our armament was ten carron-
ades, 12-pounders, and a crew of five and twenty
men. Had these been all Englishmen we should
have been more at our ease; but this being a time of
war, scarcely any English seamen could be got for
merchant ships, though their wages were 51. a month;
for they were constantly liable to be impressed by

46 CONFLICT AVITH GREEK PIRATES

any ship of war wanting hands, and made to go and
serve the King at twenty-five shillings a month, with
the additional privilege of being flogged if they de-
serted, and hung or shot if they should mutiny against
their officers. Our ci'ew was, therefore, like that of
all other merchant ships at this period, a very motley
one indeed, there being about a dozen Danes, Swedes,
and Norwegians, all hardy and excellent seamen,
three or four Genoese and Venetians, the former the
best of all Italian mariners, and the rest made up of
Portuguese, French, and Maltese, with a Russian
steward ; the first and second mate, and a young lad
of fifteen, whom I was training to be an officer, being,
besides myself, the only English persons in the crew.
To protect my wife and her infant daughter from
harm, and at the same time to prevent the possibility
of their coming on deck during the fray, they were
confined to their cabin below, in charge of the steward,
and the hatches were then battened down.

At length the pirate came within hail, stem on
towards us, as we lay with our courses up, and all
sail furled except the topsails, jib, and spanker, just
to keep the ship under steerage way. The Greek
pilot hailed the pirate, and bade him drop astern or be
prepared to receive a broadside. No answer was
returned, though his decks were crowded with men.

IN THE ARClIirELAGO. 47

A second challenge was given, but with no effect, —
when the pirate, luffing up his vessel under our lee-
quarter, with an evident intention to board us, we
fired a broadside of round, grape, and canister right
into his decks, with a volley of musketry at the same
time. His mainmast instantly fell by the board, with
a horrible crash, and killed and wounded in its fall
perhaps as many as our broadside had done, — the
screams and cries of the dying and wounded being
most pitiable to hear. After a moment's pause, the
remaining part of the pirate's crew got out their
sweeps, and came so close alongside that their grap-
nell irons were twice hooked in our main chains ; and
but for the intrepidity and vigilance of the carpenter,
who stood at the gangway with his well-sharpened
axe, prepared for such an emergency, and who twice
cut away the lanyards of their grapnells, so as to
render them useless, our decks would have been
swept by their overwhelming numbers, and all hands
perhaps butchered.

The excitement of the scene so entirely restored
my strength, that I jumped from the capstan, where
I had been held fast till the first broadside was
discharged ; and I felt as if I had the strength of
twenty men, — so that I had all my faculties perfect
for the command. Foiled in his attempt to board us

48 PIEATES STOUTLY EESISTED,

alongside, the pirate dropped astern, and was now
joined by a second vessel of about the same size and
number of men, who came iip fresh to the combat,
while our own crew were greatly exhausted by per-
petual watching before the contest began. A couple
of broadsides, followed up quickly, caused her so
much damage as to induce her to sheer off also, and
we were beginning to hope for a conquest ; but at this
moment, a twelve-pound shot, fired from the second
vessel, entered between the timbers in the state room,
in which my wife and child had taken shelter below,
and cutting away the lanyards of the cot in which
the child was lying, the shot, cot, and child came
rolling together at her mother's feet ! She caught
the infant in her arms, with a piercing shriek, which I
heard with great dismay on deck, as I thought one
or both must have been killed; but on going down I
found them only terrified, but not hurt. My wife,
however, immediately recovered her presence of
mind, and finding I was myself safe, thanked Heaven
for our deliverance. I returned immediately to the
deck, and found the first of the pirates now assuming
a new position, and using her sweeps to approach us
under the stern, for the purpose of boarding us over
the taffrail. Fortunately, instead of this being our
weakest point, as it too often is in merchant ships

AND FINALLY BEATEN OFF. 49

especially, it was our strongest, for we had here two
long nine-pounders, stern-chasers, which were charged
to the muzzle with round, grape, and double-chain
shot; and superintending myself the discharge of these,
we poured their contents right down on her crowded
deck, and must have committed great slaughter, from
the cries which immediately arose from the wounded.
Unfortunately, in the discharge, one of the guns
leaped from its carriage, and in its recoil gave me so
severe a wound in the thigh that I was completely dis-
abled from moving, and had to resume my original
position on the capstan as before. The pirate re-
taliated by a volley of musketry, the greater part of
which entered the cabin windows, from her being so
close under our stern ; but just at the moment of this
discharge, my wife was in the act of removing her-
self and her child from the state-room where the
cannon-ball had entered, to the after cabin, which
she had to cross ; and though we counted sixteen
musket-balls in the bulkhead by which they passed,
not a hair of the head of either of them was hurt !
In the meantime, the pirate under our stern had
received so much injury in her hull from the dis-
charge of our stern guns, the shot of which had
gone through her bottom, that she sunk immediately
under our quarter, and all the crew perished by

VOL. IL E

50 INJUEY SUSTAINED IN

drowning: for it was impossible to attempt to save
them without harbouring the very men who would
have cut our throats the moment they were in safety.
The second pirate then put out all her oars, and
swept away from us with the utmost speed, leaving
us the victory, but in a state of such exhaustion and
helplessness, that we were quite unequal to any new
evolution.

• In the course of this furious and obstinate contest,
a number of the pirates were cut down in their
attempts to board, tlieir bodies falling into the sea,
and being crushed by the occasional contact of the
vessels' sides, so closely was the action maintained.
Others were slain on our own decks, and afterwards
consigned to the deep ; but from the circumstance of
none of our own crew ever venturing from the deck
of their own ship, being all charged to act on the de-
fensive, not one of the whole number was killed,
though more than half the crew were wounded with
musketry, splinters, and sabre cuts, some few severely.
Tlie decks were covered with blood ; and the wreck
of shattered bulwarks, stranded rigging, split sails,
and general dilapidation was so great, that it was
matter of surprise to us how a single gun could have
been worked efficiently amidst the darkness and con-
fusion that prevailed. The loss of the enemy, on the

WOUNDED AND DISABLED. 51

other hand, must have been considerable, as their
crews were so thick that it was impossible for
either a cannon-ball or musket-shot to pass amono-
them without killing several in their passage.

It took us great part of the remainder of the night
to clear away the wreck occasioned bv our conflict,
and bind up the wounds of the disabled ; and when
this was done, the exhausted crew were so overcome
with fatigue, that a cock-boat might have made an
easy prize of us, as scarcely an eje could resist the
influence of that sleep to which all had been now
for so many hours strangers. For myself, the excite-
ment being over, my fever returned, and soon after,
my delirium. But while I was confined to my cot,
Mrs. Buckingham, the Russian steward, and my youno-
pupil, Edward Lyons, the only individuals not pros-
trated by exertion, kept watch on deck, while every
one else was absorbed in the profoundest slumber;
and happily the calm which prevailed rendering no
evolutions necessary, this was all the watch that was
required.

On retnrning to the possession of my reason, I felt
deep sorrow for the necessity under which I had been
placed, as it seemed to me, of assisting to destroy so
many of my fellow creatures ; for my opinions re-
specting the criminality as well as folly of war, when

E V!

52 EIGHT OF RESISTANCE.

aggressive, were quite in harmony with those of Lady
Mary Wortley Montague and Benjamin Franklin, as
quoted in a previous chapter ; and indeed I might
say a higher authority than both — our blessed Saviour
himself, in his precepts as promulgated through
the Gospel. Willingly did I seek release from the
responsibility of such destruction, in the consideration
that we were not the aggressors, and that in my own
peculiar position I could hardly, with justice to
others, have acted otherwise than I had done; and
this was the train of reasoning that helped to calm
my mind. I considered that from the day I took
command of the ship from her owners, I became re-
sponsible for the safety of the property committed
by them to my care, as well as to the various mer-
chants who had placed their goods on board to form
the cargo, the whole probably of 50,000/. in value.
I considered also that every seaman who had consented
to join the crew, looked up to me for the protection
of his life, to the utmost of my means, in any position
of danger that might arise ; and, above all, that I was
doubly bound, as a husband and father, to prevent,
if possible, the violation and murder of my wife and
child. My own life I might, perhaps, have been free
to sacrifice (though that even is a doubtful point;
and if we have no right to take it away by our own

CALM AND REPOSE. 53

hands, we can have no ri2;ht to resio;n it without a
struggle, into the hands of others) ; but as to the
lives and property placed under my care, and the
charge of which I had knowingly and voluntarily
undertaken, my conclusion was that I had no right
whatever to sacrifice these, and that, therefore, I was
bound to do my utmost to protect both ; especially
against assailants who knew no law of mercy, but
whose maxim and practice is to sink, burn, and de-
stroy, and then to murder even those who surrender.
It continued calm all the following day, and by
sunset the crew were sufficiently refreshed by repose
and food to resume their duties as usual, though,
from the number of the men disabled in the fight, our
effective force was reduced to twelve hands only.
At night I was sufficiently recovered to be taken on
deck, to enjoy the delicious coolness so agreeable after
a sultry day ; and as the slight swell of the water
made the moonbeams rest alternately on the surface
of each rising ridge, I felt the full force and beauty
of Moore's exquisite simile.

" See, how beneath the moon-beam's smile
Yon little billow heaves its breast,
And foams and sparkles for awhile,
And, murmuring, then retires to rest.
E 3

54 OVERTAKEN BY A STORM.

" Thus man, the sport of bliss and care,
Rises on Time's eventful sea.
And having swelled a moment there,
Thus melts into eternity."

As the night advanced, our troubles were renewed ;
at sunrise it began to blow freshly, increasing in
force, and by noon we had strong gales from the
northward, and were carrying all sail to keep off a
lee shore. Vfe now discovered the bowsprit to be
sprung ; and from the press of sail necessary to keep
our course, we carried away the main-stay, and
parted the fore and main swifters and back-stays,
sprung the fore top-mast a little above the cap, and
parted some of the standing rigging aloft, which
had been injured by musket-shot in the action of
the preceding night. We accordingly sent do\vn the
top-gallant yards on deck, housed the masts, close-
reefed the fore top- sail, and made the ship snug, it
blowing harder and harder, with a high running sea
throughout the day.

At daybreak on the following morning, we saw the
islands of Christiana under our lee-bow ; but from
the strength of the gale, we were not able to weather
them, and accordingly we bore up and ran to leeward
of them, hauling in for Santorin, intending to anchor
under its shore ; but the extreme depth of water

ISLAND OF SANTORIX. 55

rendered the experiment hazardous, and we therefore
still kept the sea.

This ishxnd presents a remarkable appearance on
every side, it being one of a group of three that have
been thrown up from the bottom of the sea by vol-
canic action, within the historical period. Its first
appearance above the level of the water was in the
year 169 before the Christian era; and other sub-
sequent submarine eruptions added to the group in
the years 47, 1373, 1427, and so recently as 1711,
the lava of which, at the bottom of some of the
largest crevices, is still said to retain a great deal of
its primitive heat ; and, as on the slopes of Etna and
Vesuvius, the soil covering this lava is everywhere
remarkably fertile.

The weather continued so stormy that it was more
like a Baltic winter gale than a summer in the Medi-
terranean ; and in our disabled state both of men and
materials, we were kept stretching across from west
to east and east to west again, losing ground on every
tack, till we were nearly driven on shore on the
northern coast of the great Island of Candia or Crete.
Here, the celebrity of Mount Ida — the history of the
poet Orpheus — of the king Idomeneus, who conducted
a fleet to the assistance of Agamemnon at Troy —
of its laws serving as the model for the republic of

E 4

06 CEETE OE CANDIA.

Lycurgus — of its intricate labyrinth, and tlie story
of Theseus and Ariadne — of its conquest by Julius
Caesar, and the defeat of Marc Antony — and, lastly,
its memorable siege by the Turks, and heroic defence
by the Venetians, during a period of twenty-five
years — all formed materials for reflection and study.
It was here, too, that Falconer the poet describes the
Britannia as anchoring just previous to her perilous
voyage among the Cyclades, and where he laments
the devastation caused by the Turkish invasion.

"Eternal powers ! what ruin from afar
Marks the fell track of desolating war !
Here arts and commerce with auspicious reign
Once breathed sweet influence o'er the happy plain ;
For wealth, for valour, courted and revered,
What Albion is, fair Candia then appeared.
But since the S[>irit of her sons is broke,
They bow to Ottoman's imperious yoke."

As the weather moderated, we repaired our damages
day by day, and were enabled to carry more sail, by
which we threaded our way up through the northern
islands of the Archipelago, every one of tvhich had
its mythology, its poetry, and its history to interest
ns, but especially Delos, Nicaria, and Samos, all of
which we passed in our course.

SACRED ISLE OF DELOS. 57

Considering the reputation of Delos, its small size
and insignificant appearance is disappointing. It was
renowned as the birthplace of Apollo, whose oracle
at Delphi was celebrated throughout the ancient
world ; and the remains of a temple to that deity,
with a colossal statue, a noble portico, and a fine
marble theatre, yet remaining at the foot of Mount
Cynthus, where the twins of Latona were brought
forth under an olive tree, still testify to its ancient
grandeur. Ovid calls the island Erratica Delos, and
Virgil calls it a floating island first fixed by Apollo.
Herodotus informs us of the remarkable fact that
even the Persians were overawed by the sacredness
of the spot ; and when they had approached the island
with six hundred sail of their ships, they were struck
with reverence, and forbore their intended depreda-
tions, to which the poet Polwhele, a country clergy-
man of Cornwall, whom I had the happiness to know,
beautifully alludes, in his exquisite little poem of
Grecian Prospects.

" Where Delos trembles on her desert wave,

Rose there a rock but breathed religion round ?
Hath ancient Echo murmured from her cave,
Nor Inspiration swelled the sacred sound ?
\Yitness her fane, with holier shades embrowned.

58 ANDROS — TINO— NICAEIA.

Her proud colossal gods, that, hovering near,

Paled Persia saw, nor touched the hallowed ground.
But sudden, as she dropped th' uplifted spear.
Her sails inuumerous checked, and paused in mid
career."

Aiidros is a large island, and remarkably fertile.
Tino, close hy, is celebrated, according to Eton, for
its female beauty. *' In Tino," he says, " the women
are almost all beauties, and there the true antique
head is to be found." Nicaria, which divides the
Egean from the Icarian Sea, is the scene of the story
of Dasdalus and Icarus. Though the island of Ni-
caria is comparatively unproductive in its soil by
land, the inhabitants derive subsistence from their
labours beneath the sea, in diving for sponges, and
inhabiting the caverns with which their rocky shores
abound. Thevenot, the French traveller, mentions
a sino;ular custom amono; them. " The richest men
in the island," says he, " give their daugliters to the
best divers, who are tried before the maid and her
fiither, and he who remains longest under water wins
her." Of such men it is no figure of speech, but a
literal fact, to say that they may be " over head and
ears in love." Thevenot adds that " the women have
the ascendancy ; and as soon as the husband arrives
from any place in his boat, the wife goes to the sea-

ISLE OF SAMOS. 59

side, takes the oars and carries them home, after
which the husband can dispose of nothing without
her permission."

The Island of Samos, which we approached wliile
standing to the eastward, is larger in area, and its
interior much loftier than most of the group to which
it belono-s. It is also fertile, and abounds in all the
fruits of this delicious region. It enjoyed great ce-
lebrity in antiquity, having been colonised by the
lonians more than a thousand years before Christ.
It was deemed the birthplace of Juno, from whence
she dispatched her messenger Iris, upon the wings of
the rainbow, whose office it was to unloose the souls
of dying women from the chains of the body. The
island was subdued by the Athenians under Pericles,
and a statue of Alcibiades was erected within the
precincts of the Temple of Juno, some remains of
which still exist. Horace alludes to the beauty of
Samos and its various works of art. Antony and
Cleopatra passed some months here in luxurious en-
joyment, and Augustus twice wintered here, and
granted the citizens many immunities ; yet, such are
the vicissitudes of fortune, that Knowles, in his His-
tory of the Turks, describes it as desolate and unin-
habited in 1472. Its chief celebrity, however, arises
from its being the birthplace and home of Pytha-

60 PYTHAGOEAS AND HIS DOCTRINES.

goras, who became a voluntary exile from the tyranny
of Polycrates, and travelling in Egypt and Greece
propounded his remarkable doctrines among the
sages of Heliopolis and Athens, and founded his
school at Crotona and Sybaris, in Magna Grecia, from
whence his disciples spread his fame through the
world. Moore, in his irregular ode " The Genius of
Harmony," which we read here in sight of the island,
has a beautiful passage, alluding to the intercourse of
Pythagoras with Heaven, and his inspiration at the
fount of Nature ; and in another of his classical pieces,
" The Grecian Girl's Dream of the Blessed Isles,
addressed to her Lover," where she relates having
met in Elysium, Liontium, Pythea, and Aspasia, in
whose soft embraces Epicurus, Aristotle, and Socrates,
their respective admirers, forgot the toil of " less
endearing ties," he introduces the beloved of Pytha-
goras, with an exquisite allusion to his great doctrine
of the transmigration of souls-

" While fair Theano, innocently fair,
Played with the ringlets of her Saniian's hair,
Who, fixed by love, at length was all her own,
And passed his spirit thro' her lips alone."

In modern days, Samos is as celebrated for its
sponges as Nicaria; and an old voyager to the Levant

DESCRirXION OF SAMOS DIVERS. 61

in 1664, Sir H. Blunt, gives us, in the quaint lan-
guage of his day, the following account of Samos, as
he found it. — " Samos," he says, " is a place under
whose rocks grow sponges : the people from their
infancy, are bred up with dry bisket and other
extenuating dyet, to make them extremely lean :
then, taking a sponge wet with oyle, they hold it
part in their mouths and part without : so go they
under water, where at first they cannot stay long ;
but after practice, some of the leanest stay an hour
and half, even until all the oyle in the sponge be
corrupted ; and by the law of the island none of that
trade is suifered to marry until he have stayed half-
an-hour under water : that they gather sponges from
the bottom of the rocks more than a hundred fathoms
deep ; which, with the other stories of the islands,
was told me by certain Greeks in our galleon." It
is clear from some parts of this, that the Greeks of
that day were not inferior to their descendants in
the art of exan-o-eration : thouirh the substratum of
the account has, no doubt, some truth in it.

We at length, after much tedious tacking and
beating to windward, reached the southern entrance
to the Straits of Scio, where we caught a fair wind ;
and our passage through this delightful arm of the
sea, though by night, was as agreeable as that of the

62 EEACH SMYRNA.

preceding voyage, — indeed, nothing could be more
bright or beautiful than the marine picture on every
side.

" 'Twas one of those delicious nights,
So common in the climes of Greece,

When day withdraws but half its lights,
And all is moonlight, halm, and peace.''

As we made our exit from the Straits at the north
end, and rounded our course up the Bay of Smyrna,
we hailed a homeward-bound vessel just coming out
of port, and asked the captain, " What news ? " To
which he replied through his speaking trumpet, with
Spartan brevity, "Damned bad!" — and on further
inquiring in what respect, he bluffly answered, " The
plague is raging, and people are dying like rotten
sheep, — a thousand a day at least." This was, in-
deed, very discouraging intelligence after our rough
passage and severe handling by the pirates ; but
there was no retreating, so we sailed up to the
anchorage, brought up among the shipping ; and then
taking Mrs. Buckingham and her infant daughter
with me in the ship's boat, I conveyed them safely to
the village of Bournabat, there to remain until tlie
plague should abate. I had to come into Smyrna
myself, however, to attend to the business of the ship,

THE PLAGUE. 63

day by day, and return to tliem at niglit ; by which
we were all more happy than we should have been
had we been lodged anywhere in the city, where the
plague continued to rage, though the villages were
as yet tolerably free from its scourge.

64

CHAP. ly.

Agreeable stay at Smyrna notwithstanding the plague. — Prac-
tical proofs of its non-contagious character. — Visit of Mrs.
Buckingham to the harem of the Governor. — Singular
notions of Asiatics as to female beauty. — Adventure on
horseback, and narrow escape. — Friendly intercourse with
Captain Hope of the Sahette. — Dramatic entertainment
given on board the frigate. — Admiral Hope, his practical
piety and benevolence. — Arrival of Sir William Ousely from
Persia. — Mr. Price the Oriental scholar. — Learned shoe-
makers. — Excursion to Scio, tlie birthplace of Homer, —
Beauty of the women and longevity of the men. — Visit to
Cheshme, the Erythasan and Cunifean Sybil.

Our stay at Smyrna was as agreeable as it was
possible to desire, notwithstanding our first alarm at
the raging of the plague. But it is astonishing how
all dangers of this description are magnified by dis-
tance from the scene, and how they diminish in im-
portance when actually amidst them. In the Turkish
quarter of the city — where there are neither sewers,
drains, water, or ventilation — ^ where medicine and
medical attendance are neither sought after nor
valued, nor could be had, indeed, if ever so much
desired, — where no adaptation of diet or change of

THE PLAGUE IN SMYRNA. 65

raiment is ever thought of in a sanitary point of view ;
and where the settled conviction of every one is,
that the hour of their death is fixed by Fate, and can
neither be accelerated nor retarded, — the deaths were
so numerous that the living wore hardly sufficient to
bury the dead. But as there are no registrations of
deaths or burials in Turkey, tlie computed numbers
varied from one thousand to five thousand per day,
out of a population of about a hundred and eighty
thousand in all — the former being, perhaps, not far
from the truth. In the Frank quarter — where the
streets are broader, and where ventilation, water, and
cleanliness obtain, where medical advice is at hand,
and where precautions are taken — the deaths were
very few ; and in the surrounding villages, inhabited
chiefly by Christians and Europeans, the plague was
unknown. The merchants, therefore, who had houses
in the country went into town in the morning, tran-
sacted their usual business in their counting-houses,
and went even into the Turkish quarter if required,
at the Custom-house and elsewhere with impunity,
without apprehension and without danger, for not
one of all their number was attacked by the plague
during our stay. It was this practical proof of the
non-contagiousness of this terrible disorder, or its
communicability from a diseased to a healthy subject,
VOL. II. r

66 FRIENDLY INTERCOURSE WITH RESIDENTS.

by personal contact, wliich first led me to investigate
the subject of the quarantine laws, and ended in the
conviction that they were inefficacious, unnecessary,
vexatious, ruinously expensive, and ought to be en-
tirely abolished ; to which effect I subsequently wrote,
as will be hereafter shown ; and to which conviction,
after a lapse of nearly forty years from this period,
the statesmen of England appear at length to have
arrived.

From the infrequency of the visits of English
ladies to Smyrna, and from her many attractive and
amiable qualities, my wife became a universal
favourite among all the Levantines, that is, families
of European origin, but of Asiatic birth and con-
nections, and her really beautiful and intelligent child
was the object of interest and admiration. From
being a great favourite with the Greek pilot, who had
her frequently in his arms in the intervals of duty,
she had acquired enough of Italian and Greek to be
able to hold imperfect communication with children
of her own age among tlie Levantine families, and
this increased to such facility by daily intercourse and
practice, that she spoke both these tongues fluently
before the end of our stay.

Two or three incidents connected with our sojourn
at Bournabat and Smyrna, during this period, may

THE governor's HAREM. 67

be selected from a number perhaps equally deserving
of record.

The first was Mrs. Buckingham's visit to the harem
of the Governor of Smyrna. Some of the Levantine
ladies who had access to the Governor's family, had
mentioned my wife and daughter in such glowing-
terms, that the chief lady of the harem expressed a
desire to see them ; and a day was appointed for the
visit, accompanied by ladies of their acquaintance,
who spoke Turkish, and could therefore act as in-
terpreters. The party were admitted into the
principal entrance of the garden wliich surrounded
the governor's house, by the chief of the eunuchs ;
and as they a])proached tlie palace, they saw a number
of these repulsive attendants planted in different
quarters, to prevent the possibility of any intrusion
from male visitors. Ascending to the harem, which
was a spacious apartment, with a fountain in the
centre, and highly adorned according to Turkish
taste, they were received by the chief lady of the
Governor, and a number of young and handsome
Georgian and Circassian female slaves. Pipes and
coffee, perfumes and sherbet, conserve of roses and
delicious fruits were served in abundance, and every
possible mark of respect paid to the visitors. When
conversation began, the first observation of the

F 2

68 ASIATIC CEITEEION OF FEMALE BEAUTY.

Turkish lady was an exclamation of surprise at the
slender waist of mj wife, and still more when informed
that she was the mother of the child who accompanied
her. She could not comprehend how the human
figure could be compressed into such a compass, and
asked to be permitted to examine the dress, which
was accordingly granted. On arriving, however, at
the stays, and seeing the manner in which it was
tightly laced, her wonder was at the climax ; nor
could she be made to comprehend how a person could
breathe freely or enjoy any movements of the body,
" cased up and imprisoned," as she called it, " in
such a tight sack as this." Still greater was her
surprise to learn that a slender figure was regarded
as a feminine trait of beauty esteemed by men, and
therefore sought to be attained by women even where
Nature had denied it. In short, the horror with
which we look upon the cramped feet of the women
of China, could not be greater than that in which
this English custom was viewed by the Turks. It
should be added, however, that their standard of
beauty is in the opposite extreme ; both in Africa and
Asia, women are " fattened up " to the requisite size
for male admiration, as we fatten our prize cattle,
which gave Volney occasion to say that the Turks
value beauty by the quintal — one of their measures

MES. Buckingham's adventure. 69

of weight ; and he quotes a verse from a Turkish
poet, who eulogises the object of liis admiration in
these glowing terms :

" Her face is like tlie full moon,
And her haunches are like cushions."

Another incident was this. Our kind friend, Mr.
James Brant, (since, I believe, consul at Erzeroum,
and now consul at Smyrna,) was an accomplished
horseman, and kept several beautiful Arabs for him-
self and friends ; and Mrs. Buckingham being an ex-
cellent horsewoman, from her country education and
experience, a party was formed of some half dozen
gentlemen, to accompany us in a ride over the beau-
tiful plain that extends along the foot of the moun-
tains behind Smyrna. On our return from this
excursion, while approaching the sea-shore, we en-
countered a party of young Turks, to whom the
sight of a woman on horseback, unveiled, in the
company of men, appeared such a public scandal,
that one of them approached behind the Arab on
which my wife was mounted, and gave it a smart
cut across the haunches with the courbash, or short
flexible whip of the hippopotamus hide, with which
Turkish horsemen are generally furnished. The

F 3

70 MRS. Buckingham's adventure.

generous steed, full of blood and vigour, never
having, perhaps, received such a blow before, (for
the Asiatics, generally, are humane in their treat-
ment of animals), first resented the indignity by
flinging his hind heels in the air, and projecting a
backw^ard kick, during which my wife had nearly
lost her seat, and then set off as fast as his legs
could carry him in a gallop which it was impossible
for her to restrain. The gentlemen — of course my-
self among the number — could not but keep up with
her, in case of accident ; and the faster we followed
the faster her steed endeavoured to fly from us. Her
head-dress now became loose ; and first flew off the
bonnet, next all the combs of the hair, which being
long and ample, floated horizontally behind her head
from the mere force of her passage through the air ;
and on arriving at the sea-shore, where, fortunately,
there was a shelving beach, and where we hoped the
mad career of the indignant steed would have been
arrested, he plunged into the sea, and swam out at
least a quarter of a mile with his firm and intrepid
rider. Fatigue, however, at length subdued his
impetuosity, and he then answered the bit by turn-
ing gently round — swinnning to the shore — and as
he gained the land stood trembling at the edge of the
Avater while some of us patted his neck, and the rest

CAPTAIN HOPE. 71

helped my wife to dismount, and congratulated her
on her horsemanship and her safety.

Another and more agreeable incident was this.
The Salsette frigate, which was absent on a cruise
when we first reached the port, had subsequently
arrived; and Mr. Brant, knowing nothing of what
had passed between her commander. Captain Hope,
and myself on the previous voyage, as described at
page 17., invited him to meet us and spend the
evening together. The gallant officer, as sailors
always are, was most attentive and complimentary
to Mrs. Buckingham, and full of admiration for
her little daughter, who, now nearly four years of
age, was well-behaved in company, and always in-
vited with us wherever we went. I remarked, how-
ever, that the captain regarded me with that sort of
attention which would seem to say, " I tldnk we have
met somewhere before, but can't exactly call to mind the
time or place." I thought it, therefore, best at once
to clear up all ambiguity, by stating to him who I
was, and recalling the circumstances of our inter-
view. At first he blushed, and seemed embarrassed;
when I gave such a turn to the matter as relieved him
from all anxiety, and we enjoyed a hearty laugh over
the story. But he made ample amends for all, by
inviting us to an entertainment which he proposed to

F 4

72 THEATRICALS ON BOARD THE " SALSETTE."

get up for our special enjoyment on board his frigate,
and wliicli we gladly accepted. It should be under-
stood, that in those days, the captain of a man-of-war
condescending to invite or entertain on board his ship
the captain of a merchantman, would have been
regarded as a rare act of condescension ; and it was
an honour which many of my brother captains greatly
envied me.

On the day appointed we repaired on board the
frigate, where we met a most distinguished and
agreeable company to dinner : and the half deck
being fitted up as a stage, a comedy and farce were
admirably represented by the officers [and seamen of
the crew. As the height between decks was only
about seven feet, there was not much space for
scenery, machinery, and decorations ; but these were
not necessary to the enjoyment of the audience,
which consisted of all the officers, and as many of
the crew as could by possibility so place themselves
in any position as to get a sight of the acting, by which
crowding all the avenues for air were blocked up,
and we were gasping for breath. The hardy tars
went through their parts, nevertheless, with perfect
self-possession ; and though the female characters
were necessarily most imperfectly represented by
rough, hairy-bosomed, and braNvny-armed seamen.

A sailor's curiosity. 73

the whole passed off to the intense satisfaction of
actors and spectators.

An anecdote was current here, connected with
Captain Hope's visit to Athens, which is strikingly
characteristic of the force of curiosity when excited,
even among the most uneducated, by tlie stories of
ancient times. The Salsette being anchored at the
Pir?eus, Captain Hope and some of his officers went
up to visit Athens ; but gave the strictest charge to
the coxswain of his cutter, not to venture himself
nor permit any of the boat's crew to venture to land,
as they miglit get into trouble with the Turks there.
The desire, however, to do what was expressly for-
bidden, became, with the coxswain, perfectly irre-
sistible; and in defiance of his captain's injunctions,
and with the probability of being flogged for his
transgression, he sent the boat's crew aboard, to re-
turn in the evening ; and went himself alone up to
Athens also. While wandering among its ancient
ruins and modern dwellings, to his great surprise
and horror he met his captain at the turning of a
street, so close, as to make concealment or escape
impossible. They both stood silent for a short while in
mutual surprise, when the captain first broke silence,
by saying, — " Why, is it possible, after my strict
command, that I find you up here, where you were

74 THE "WOODEN HORSE OF TROY."

expressly forbidden to come ? "What on earth brought
you here ? — who or what did you come to see ? —
and what excuse have you to offer for your conduct?"
To which the coxswain, taking off his hat as a mark
of humility and respect, coolly replied : — " Why,
Sir, I thought I might never be so near to it again ;
and, therefore, I came up to see the ' Wooden Horse
of Troy,' about which I read in a story-book a long
time ago ! " The good-natured captain was perfectly
disarmed by this frank and unexpected reply; and
did not even wound the coxswain's feelings by cor-
recting his historical knowledge, but simply said, —
" Well, when you have seen it, my good fellow, go
aboard and describe it to your shipmates." With
most captains of the navy the truant coxswain would
have been subjected to some punishment ; but it was
no doubt the wisest policy thus to attach him still
more strongly to his commander by kindness.

During the remainder of our stay in Smyrna,
Captain Hope did all in his power to add to our
enjoyments, by boating and other excursions ; and
we felt ourselves largely indebted to his good nature
and politeness for a great share of our pleasures.
The gallant officer is now Admiral Hope, resident in
London, and distinguished for his piety and benevo-
lence, which is manifested by his frequent and liberal

SIR WILLIAM OUSELY, 75

contributions to almost every religious or pliilan-
thropic object proposed, and especially towards the
formation and support of those Seamen's Homes, so
long wanted but happily now becoming so fi-equent,
to protect the u.nsuspecting mariner from the traps
and pitfalls by which he is surrounded on his first
landing in every port of the kingdom, and shelter
him from the temptations to evil, and stimulate him
by the attractions to good. Long may the worthy
veteran survive, to continue his useful and honour-
able labours, for the benefit of his fellow-seamen and
an example to the rest of mankind !

During my stay at Smyrna on this occasion there
arrived here, by a journey overland from Persia, Sir
William Ousely, a great Oriental antiquary and
scholar, brother of Sir Gore Ousely, then Ambassa-
dor at the Persian Court. He was accompanied by
Mr. Price, as his travelling secretary or companion.
The contrast between these two persons was very
striking. Sir William was a perfect gentleman of the
old school, aristocratic in appearance and bearing,
courteous and polished in manners, and full of general
information. Mr. Price, who we understood was
originally a shoemaker, had imbibed an intense desire
to become acquainted with Oriental languages, and,
under immense disadvantages had, by great labour

76 LITERARY SHOEMAKERS.

and perseverance, mastered the Hebrew and Arabic,
and made some progress in Persian, when being in-
troduced to Sir William Ousely, before his leaving
England, the worthy baronet consented to take him
with him and pay all his expenses. Mr. Price re-
tained all his original rusticity of manners and appear-
ance, and was so entirely engrossed with his studies
as a linguist that he appeared to know nothing else,
though no doubt he was a great proficient in these.

By the way, it is remarkable how many clever men
and scholars have been produced by this class of
workmen, which some attribute to the sedentary yet
social nature of their occupations, as they sit round a
small table in parties of four or six to labour, and can
carry on all their operations and enjoy uninterrupted
intei'chano;e of tliouo;ht and conversation at the same
time. Among the rest may be mentioned Dr. Carey
and Dr. Marsham, the learned missionaries of Seram-
pore, who translated the Bible into many eastern
tongues, and wrote admirable books besides ; — Dr.
Morrison, the most eminent Chinese scholar, to whom
we owe the best Dictionary and Grammar of that
singular language ; — Gilford, the translator of Juve-
nal, and for many years the editor of the Quarterly
Review; — and, though last not least, Samuel Drew,
of St. Austell, in Cornwall, the author of one of the

ISLAND OF SCIO. 77

profounclost metaphysical essays on tlie immortality
of the soul; — and Mr. Price, the Oriental scholar
and companion of Sir William Ousely.

On our first introduction to these newly arrived
travellers. Sir William was immediately enamoured
of our little daughter Virginia, who, he said, was an
almost exact resemblance of a child of his own, whom
he had left in England, and whom he soon hoped to
see again. Accordingly he was never more happy
than when he had her in his arms, and they would
sometimes pass hours together to their mutual satis-
faction. In an excursion which we made to the
Island of Scio, in the Salsette frigate, which conveyed
Sir William and Mr. Price to Malta, the learned
baronet carried the child in his arms through the
streets of Scio, and appeared to feel the greatest de-
light in stopping at the doors of many of the Greek
inhabitants, where the females were thickly conore-
gated to see the strangers pass, and enjoying the ad-
miration and caresses of the mothers and daughters
of Scio as much as if the child had been his own,
while to us it was most agreeable to see the springs
of parental sympathy thus freely flowing, and Nature
triumphant over all conventionalities.

Scio, or Chios as it was anciently called, besides
being one of the most fertile and beautiful of all the

78 SCIO — BEAUTY OF ITS FEMALES,

Greek islands, lias great historical celebrity. It is
generally recognised as the birthplace of Homer ; for
though, according to the poet, —

" Seven cities now contend for Homer dead,
Through which tlie living Homer begged his bread,"

yet Chios is admitted to have the supremacy, and
hence the line —

" See the blind Bard of Chios' rocky isle."

The family of the Homeridte, as his descendants
were called, undoubtedly dwelt in Chios, and Leo
Allatius gives abundant evidence of this ; while
Homer himself, in his Hymn to Apollo, addresses the
god from his native island Chios. Ion, also an ele-
giac poet of the age of JEschylus and Sophocles, was
a native Chian.

The modern town of Scio is one of the largest and
best built in all the Archipelago. The inhabitants of
the island are computed at 150,000, of which the
Tui'ks form only a fortieth part ; and yet this minority
rule the majority with a rod of iron, and carry oflp a
heavy tribute to Constantinople every year in the
corn, wine, oil, silk, gum mastic, fruits, and honey,
which the labour of the Greeks and the fertility of
the soil produce in abundance. The English tra-
veller Dallaway justly praises the beauty of its

AND LONGEVITY OF ITS MALES. 79

female inhabitants. "As we walked throuo;li the
town," he says, "on a Sunday evening, the streets
were filled with women, dancing, or sitting at their
doors in groups, dressed in the fashion of the island.
The girls have most brilliant complexions, with regu-
lar and delicate features. The ringlets which are
so elegantly disposed round the sweet countenances
of the fair Chiotes, are such as Milton describes
by " hyacinthine locks," crisped and curled like the
blossom of that flower, while their faces are lovely,
and their eyes varying with infinite variety of ex-
pression, from tenderness and softness to animation
and vivacity." As a proof of the salubrity of the
climate, longevity is very common. Among other
instances, Dallaway mentions his being accosted at a
fountain by a venerable old man who said he was 120
years of age, and that he had a son now living Avho
was eighty, and had recently become a father. He
acknowledged that there were many older men in
Scio than himself, but none who like him had been
preferred, as he could boast to have lately been, by a
girl of twenty to a rival of her own age ! We saw
quite as much female beauty as Dallaway describes,
and several instances of hale and hearty men above a
century old ; and Sir William Ousely admitted that
though there was a great deal of female beauty

80 CTSSUS OR CHESHME.

among the Persian women of Sliiraz and Ispahan, lie
thought the pahn of excellence was with the Greeks.

From Scio we crossed the Straits to pay a hasty
visit to the port of Cheshme, on the coast of Asia
Minor. Its present importance arises solely from its
being one of the places at which ships from Smyrna
occasionally touch to take on board dried fruits, figs,
and raisins, to save the expense of freight or carriage
to the larger port. Anciently it was the port of
Cyssus, where the fleet of Antiochus was defeated by
the Romans, and more recently, in 1772, it was
memorable as the scene of the entire destruction of
the Turkish fleet by a Russian squadron under an
English commander. Erythra3, famous for a sybil,
and Mount jNIenias, on the summit of which Anaxa-
goras built an observatory, were only a few miles to
the north of Cyssus or Cheshme. The Erythrsean
sybil, and the sybil of Cuma3 in Italy, were the same.
Her oracular communications were placed by Tarquin
in the Capitol, and burnt by accident during the war
of Marius and Sylla ; and it is said that the Emperor
Augustus deputed three ambassadors to Erythraj, to
procure genuine transcriptions, but they collected
only mysterious verses known by oral tradition.

We were courteously entertained by the English
vice-consul at Cheshme, a Greek, whose young wife

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN AT CHESHME. 81

we thought even more beautiful than any of the
women we had seen at Scio, and whom it was im-
possible to regard without being fascinated ; but the
husband appeared more jealous than pleased at the
manifestations of our admiration. We here parted
from our Oriental friends, Sir William Ousely and
Mr. Price, who took their departure for Malta, while
we returned to Smyrna.

VOL. II.

82

CHAR V.

Sail from Smyrna with a companion, the i/ermes. — Terrific
hail-storm, and loss of topmast on the African coast. — Repair
of dama<res, and arrival at Gibraltar. — Narrow escape from
being wrecked on Cape Finisten-e. — Arrival in the Thames.
— Stangate Creek. — Quarantine. — Seamen prevented from
hanging the carpenter at the yard-arm. — Absurdity and
inefficiency of the Laws of Quarantine.

Our business at Smyrna being completed, and our
cargo of valonea, madder-roots, raw silk, dried fruits,
and wines, being all on board, we sailed from the Bay,
in company with the ship Ilermes, Captain Williams,
for London direct. As expedition in the voyage was
of great importance, I conceived that we might
shorten it by some days if, instead of pursuing the
usual course after reaching Cape Bon, in Africa, we
kept close along the African coast, and availed our-
selves of the land and sea breezes, blowing alternately
night and day on that hot and sandy region, instead
of being carried to the northward on the coast of
Spain, and having often to beat down from thence to
the Straits of Gibraltar against contrary winds. My

TEKKinC ITAIL-STOIIM. 83

companion assenting to this arrangement, wo pursued
tliat course after passing tlirough the Archipelago and
by Malta in the usual track.

As we sailed along the African coast from the pro-
jecting portion where the ruins of Carthage are
situated, towards Bona, a sandy and desolate track,
we heard during the night the roar of the lions, loud,
distinct, and thrilling, amid the otherwise dead silence
of all around; and between Bona and Algiers we
experienced one of the most terrific hail-storms that
it was ever my lot to encounter, before or since.
We were under full sail, with single reefed topsails
and topgallant sails set, and staysails all drawing, with
the wind off the land on our larboard beam, when
with a suddenness like that of the white squalls in
the Indian seas, there burst upon us such a gust of
wind as carried the main-topmast away by the board
before a sail could be clewed up, and laid the ship on
her starboard beam-ends. At the same time the hail-
stones came down as large as pigeon's eggs, and with
sharp, ragged edges, like fragments of broken ice,
cutting the faces and hands of all on whom they
fell, driving the men from the helm, and causing all
the crew to run for shelter under the booms, in the
forecastle, or wherever else the hail could not reach
them. It was a period of intense anxiety, and I ex-

G 2

84 LOSS OF TOPMAST,

pected every moment to see the hatches filled and
the ship go to the bottom ; but after as sudden a
lull, when the fury of the hail-storm was spent, the
men repaired to their duty ; and by throwing over-
board our lee-guns, clearing away the wreck of the
main-topmast, gathering in all the after-sail, and
hoisting the flying jib, we got the ship round before
the wind, when she righted with a violent oscillation
that nearly capsised ns on the other side.

Our main business now was to get up a new main-
topmast and topgallant mast, with their proper yards
and rigging before we could make sail ; and as we
had only one carpenter on board, and the wood-work
of the maintop had been torn away by the fall of the
mast, we made signal to our companion for assistance
in this respect. Instead of answering it, however,
which he probably would have done had there been
any imminent danger of our foundering, he profited
by our misfortune to crowd all sail, and leave us to
our own resources ; the motive being sheer avarice,
as he was part owner of the ship and cargo ; as, if
he could reach the Thames a'^few days before us, he
would command the early market, and increase his
profit by perhaps ten or fifteen per cent. We were
all indignant at such shabby treatment, but resolved
to do our best to overtake him nevertheless.

AND REPAIR OF DAMAGES. 85

A new difficulty now arose. Our carpenter had
been wounded in the head, in a ship of war, and had
been invalided on that account ; and though when
sober he was a valuable and well-behaved man, the
slightest quantity of liquor affected his brain, and
made him as capricious and wayward as a spoiled
child. He had taken an extra glass of grog, just
after the hail-storm, and now declared that he had
been so bruised by the fall of the main-topmast that
he was quite unable to go aloft or do any work in
the main-top. The sailors, not believing his story,
stripped him perfectly naked, and not the least sign
of a bruise or hurt of any kind was found on his
body ; so they determined that if he would not go
into the main-top himself he should be hoisted there.
I approved of this determination, being persuaded
that he had put forth a false pretence. A sling was
accordingly made, by which the carpenter and his
tools were hoisted together into the main-top ; and he
was then told that he should have nothinii to eat or
drink till he began to work, nor permitted to leave
the top till he had finished it. Pie continued as
obstinate as a mule, so that the seamen had to do his
duty and their own too, and not waiting for his assist-
ance, very speedily and cleverly repaired the woodw
work, got up the spare topmast, and topgallant-mastj

G 3

86 ARKIVAL AT GIBRALTAR.

crossed the yards, bent the sails, and had everythuig
in perfect order by sunset, when we made sail and
continued our course. The carpenter, however, was
kept in the top all night, and next morning pretended
to be dying of hunger, thirst, and fatigue. This too
was believed to be a sham, for it was not more than
eighteen hours since he had made a hearty meal, and
of fatigue he had none. But considering it possible
that he might jump overboard in his frenzy, or die of
chagrin and passion, and that, in such a case, an in-
dictment mio-ht lie ao-ainst us all as the authors of his
death, I thought it best to release him, greatly to the
mortification of the crew ; and he was lowered down
and sent to his hammock accordingly.

Being favoured with a fresh and fair wind, we
crowded every stitch of canvas, and just overtook
our companion as she was rounding Point Europa to
go into the bay of Gibraltar, there to fill up her water
for the remainder of the voyage. As we stood in
need of the same supply, we anchored here for a
similar purpose ; and to save time got all our empty
casks on deck during the night for the purpose of
sending them on sliore at daylight to be filled, so that
our decks were literally crowded. At daylight, how-
ever, to our astonishment Ave saw the Hermes getting
under way, either having come into port as a feint to

RACE WITH COMPANION. 87

deceive us^ or not needing the supply of water as
supposed ; when I immediately appealed to the crew,
placed before them the treacherous conduct of our
companion, who thus sought to steal a march upon
us, and reach the Thames in advance, and asked
them whether they would consent to be put on half
allowance of water for the rest of the voyage, rather
than be thus beaten or overreached. They answered
the proposal with three hearty cheers. We accord-
ingly got under way immediately, without even wait-
ing to replace our empty water casks in the hold till
we got clear of the Straits ; but by sunset we had
everything put to rights, and the Hermes, still in
sight, but hull-down, ahead of us. Our next con-
sideration was how to cut her off by shortening our
route ; though we had heard while at Gibraltar of
the war with America (proclaimed since our leaving
England), and that the British Channel already
swarmed with American privateers, which we were
certainly in no condition to encounter, having thrown
overboard all our starboard guns when laid on our
beam ends off the coast of Africa, and lost, also,
the support which our late companion, better armed
and better manned than ourselves, would have af-
forded us. Nevertheless, with that firmness of resolve
which is characteristic of seamen everywhere, we de-

G 4

88 NEARLY WRECKED OFF FINISTERRE.

termlned to run all hazards rather than be beaten in
the race. In shaping our course, therefore, for the
Channel, instead of keeping the usual offing for the
coast of Spain and Portugal, to avoid being embayed
in the Bay of Biscay, I directed a course which should
just round Cape Finisterre within two or three miles
only, and gave special injunctions to the officer of the
watch for a vigilant look-out as we approached that
promontory. Unfortunately these orders were but
very imperfectly observed, and we were within a
stone's throw of being wrecked on the Cape itself.
Just before daybreak, I was awakened by the ex-
traordinary silence that prevailed, for I had gone
to sleep amid the ordinary noises of the deck,
(and it is a fact sufficiently familiar to all seamen,
that any remarkable change, whether from noise to
silence or silence to noise, motion to stillness or still-
ness to motion, will awake the soundest sleeper,) so
jumping on deck to learn the cause of this change, I
found the officer of the watch asleep, the man at the
wheel in a sort of stupor or dosing, the ship rocking
from the rebound of the breakers on the shore, and
the bluff cliffs of Cape Finisterre just appearing
through the morning mist, as if directly overhead.
It was a fearful moment, as we were literally in the
jaws of death, and five minutes more our destruction

ARRIVAL IN Till-: THAMES. 89

would have been inevitable ; but by rousing the fuw
hands on deck, throwing all aback at the risk of our
masts, and aided by the off swell of the recoiling
waves, we happily escaped, though it was many days
before I was entirely free from the sensations that
this hair-breadth escape occasioned.

Our course up Channel was rapid, from the strong
south-west gales that blew, and we arrived off Dover
just after sunset in a dark December day, where
firing a gun and making the usual signal for a pilot
with lighted lanthorns at the peak, we soon received
one on board, who was terrified, however, at learning
that we had a foul bill of health, and that the plague
raged at Smyrna when we left it, though none of the
men had suffered the least illness during the voyage.
The fact, however, of our not having a clean bill of
health obliged us to run through the Downs with the
yellow flag and a black ball in the centre, denoting
the plague spot, at the main, and anchor in Stangate
Creek, the usual quarantine ground, instead of pro-
ceeding direct to London.

It was Saturday afternoon when we reached the
anchorage ; and after the sails were furled and all
made snug, the usual enjoyment of " Saturday night
at sea," was allowed to the crew, in the double al-
lowance of all their provisions for the day, not

90 AN EXECUTION PREVENTED.

omittino; the means of drinkino; the healths of their
" Sweethearts and Wives." In the cabin, we were
seated round a brisk coal fire, and a bright brass
stove, which our Russian steward prided himself in
keeping like a mirror ; and the pilot, and chief offi-
cer, Mrs. Buckingham, our little daughter and my-
self, were just beginning to enjoy a cup of tea with
the luxury of fresh milk and soft bread and butter,
brought off to us by a shore-boat just after we had
anchored in the Creek. Suddenly, how^ever, we
heard a noise and a scviffle on the forecastle, as if
the n.en wxre quarrelling, — for oaths were thickly
uttering by many voices, so that some evil was
afloat. We instantly repaired on deck, and to
our astonishment found the carpenter half drunk,
standing on the projecting end of the windlass, a rope
round his neck, with the fall in the hands of half a
dozen men, and the boatswain with his silver call to
his mouth just ready to pipe " hoist away." I de-
manded what was the meaning of all this, to which
the boatswain ansvi^ered, with the utmost calmness,
as if quite unconscious of doing anything wrong, —
" We are going to hang the carpenter at the yard-
arm !" " Good God!" 1 exclaimed, "why you will
all be hung for murder!" " Never," said one of the
seamen, " for such a blackQ;uard as this ; he oufrht to

QUARANTINE. 91

have been hung months ago." I implored them to
desist, but it was with the utmost reluctance that
they abandoned their intention, though at length
quiet was restored. On inquiry, it appeared that
the men had never forgotten his conduct when we
lost our mast in the gale ; but that the immediate
cause of the present outbreak was that he had not
only got drunk on his own double allowance, but
had stolen some of the men's grog, and by his con-
duct so broken in upon the harmony of their " Satur-
day Night,*' that the verdict of hanging him at once
at the yard-arm was pronounced by acclamation ;
and but for our timely intervention, would have been
carried into execution without delay !

While kept in the confinement of Stangate Creek,
I had a good opportunity of witnessing the practical
absurdity of the quarantine laws. Three ships from
Smyrna, leaving at the same period, and arriving in
the Thames within a day or two of each other, — the
Scipio, the Marij, and the Hermes, our treacherous
companion, which arrived two days after us, with
all her efforts to get in before — were now under
quarantine: and from the similarity of the circum-
stances under which they were all placed, it might
have been expected that all would have shared the
same fate, especially as there had not been a death.

92 ABSURDITY AND INEFFICIENCY

or a case of plague or fever In either of them since
leaving the Turkish vs^aters. But the Hermes was
released in five days ; the Scipio in fourteen ; and
the Mary remained to fulfil the full terra of forty-
days ; the loss and injury to the owners by these de-
tentions being just in proportion to the respective
periods of their detention. On inquiring afterwards
into the cause of these differences, I was informed
that the owners of the Hermes had interest at the
Treasury, and therefore obtained the speediest re-
lease ; that continual importunity and pressing, and the
precedent of the Hermes, secured our freedom ; but
that the great obstacle to the Mary's being let off for
a shorter time than the full period, was, that instead
of her having laid in her stock of brooms for sweep-
ing the decks in England, so as to last her out and
home, she had renewed her supply of brooms at
Smyrna, where they are made of a particular kind
of broad-leaved grass or flag, growing by the river's
side, and which, with mats of the same material,
were classed among the substances deemed highly
susceptible of conveying the matter of Infection or
contagion to all who handle them. It was proved,
nevertheless, that the said highly susceptible brooms
had been used every day in sweeping the decks, till
they were all worn to a stump, without any of the

OF THE QUARANTINE LAWS. 93

persons using tliem being affected in any way ; and
that if there had been any plague matter in them
when first brought on board, it must have been
scrubbed out of them long ago. The plea was of no
avail ; the officers of the quarantine were bound by
a certain official routine, from which they could not
depart ; so that this vessel, with a cargo of great
value, and a crew as healthy as our own, was com-
pelled, on account of these worn-out brooms, to re-
main till her cargo, consisting chiefly of Turkey figs
and raisins for the Christmas market, was not only
lost for the season, but so injured by the delay, that
we heard the owners had petitioned the Treasury to
be allowed to throw this portion of the cargo over-
board in the Channel to avoid payment of the duty,
which would be greater in amount than the goods
would sell for, but that this favour was denied ; and
the loss was consequently greatly aggravated by this
refusal. To cap this climax of absurdity, it may be
added, that any ship of war, with a crew of a thou-
sand men, and a voyage of only half the duration,
arriving in England from Smyrna, though the plague
might be raging when she left, and though several
cases of sickness might have occurred on the pas-
sage, would have been released from quarantine by
an Admiralty order in eight and forty hours after

94 ABSURDITY OF QUARANTINE.

her arrival ; which proves that the apprehension of
contagion is a mere pretence for keeping up a system
by which a number of officials are maintained in the
service of the Government, to the great injury of the
shipping and commercial interest of the country ;
and the sooner this absurd and inefficient practice is
abolished the better.

95

CHAP. VI.

Elegant hospitalities and agreeable parties in England. — Anec-
dotes of a Don Cossack Chief from Russia. — Mania of the
English for notoriety. — Lady Cork's rout. — Resolution
taken to resign the sea as a profession.— Plan for settling at
Malta as a shipowner and merchant. — Sail from London on this
expedition. — Lines to the Moon. — Liformation of the plague
raging at Malta. — Influence of fear on one of the passengers.
— Terror of all parties on shore at the spread of the disease.
Currently received account of its origin and progress.

The agreeable connections formed in Smyrna led to
still further introductions to London friends ; so that
for the first month after our return to England we
were overwhelmed with invitations more than we
could accept. Among other families with whom
Mrs. Buckingham and myself were invited to make
some stay, was that of the parents of our friends the
Brants, of Smyrna. Their house of business as raw
silk merchants was in Cheapside, near St. Paul's;
but they had a delightful country residence at West
Hill, near Roehampton, where we passed some weeks
in the enjoyment of that quiet rural elegance, without
parade or ostentation, which is no where to be met

on AGREEABLE PARTIES IN ENGLAND.

with in the same perfection as among the moderately
opulent families of England, without any distinguished
rank to demand certain appearances for the credit of
the order, but yet a sufficient income to obtain every
luxury worth enjoying ; a happy blending, in short,
of the material and intellectual pleasures conducive
to health, and in harmony with the most refined
taste. Our mornings were given to reading and
writing, our afternoons to riding, driving, or walking,
and our evenings to music, poetry, and amusement ;
and there was every day one or two new faces at the
dinner table to give variety to the scene.

As neighbours, living at Roehampton, were the
wealthy families of the Ruckers, Daniel and Sigis-
mund, both West India merchants, the former living
in a splendid mansion, and both having lovely and
accomplished wives, worthy of any court in Christen-
dom. Mrs. Brant, being a native of Symrna, de-
lighted to get Mrs. Buckingham or myself into a
corner, and talk over the topics connected with her
native home; its noble mountains, fertile plains, the
caravan bridge, the cypress groves of the cemeteries,
the pretty villages of Boodjah and Sedikui, the
turbanned Turks, the kalpacked Armenians, the
lively Greeks, the dance of the Romaika, and all
the recollections of her youth. Her daughters were

AN OFFICER OF THE DON COSSACKS. 97

interesting and accomplished; and a relative, Miss
Arbojne, and a frequent visitor, Miss Nash, daughter^
I believe, of the celebrated architect, made a constant
agreeable home party ; while their neighbours fre-
quently dropped in to give additional zest by their
variety.

On one of the evenings of our dining at Mr. Daniel
Rucker's, there was an officer of the Don Cossacks
present as a guest. This man had come over from
Russia on a special mission to the Government, and
though little removed from a savage in his look and
manners, he became " fashionable " for the season,
and no party was considered complete without him.
There was at that period a fierce war between Russia
and France, in which the English sympathised en-
tirely with the former ; and so much did the London
merchants make of this Don Cossack — the first, per-
haps, that had ever been seen in England — that one
afternoon at high 'Change, between three and four
o'clock, he was placed on the pedestal of the central
statue in the open court of the Royal Exchange, and
there made to answer, through an interpreter, the
various questions put to him by the surrounding-
bystanders. One of them we heard was, " How many
Frenchmen have you killed with your own hand?"
To which he answered, without hesitation, " Two

VOL. II. H

98 MANIA OF THE ENGLISK

hundred and fifty ! " which few were disposed to
beheve, though others proposed " Three cheers for the
hero of the Don."

This Cossack was at the dinner party of Mr. Daniel
Rucker, and was placed on the right hand of his
accomplished lady, with an interpreter intervening.
But when the dinner was served, his mode of eating
was so disgusting, and the quantities of oil, mustard,
vinegar, and sauces which he consumed so revolting,
that ahiiost every one near him lost their appetites,
and several of the ladies were compelled to rise and
leave the table. Every one appeared to rejoice,
therefore, when the dinner was over, and the Don
Cossack took his departure for London, where he was
engaged to three different evening parties !

This mania was very happily hit off by Moore, in
his little volume of " Intercepted Letters," published
about a year after this event (1814), in a letter from
the Countess Dowager of Cork, famed for her fashion-
able parties, to one of her lady friends, whose in-
fluence she solicits to help her to some novelties for
the occasion.

" My dear Lady L I've been just sending out

About five hundred cards for a snug httle I'out,
But I can't conceive how, in this very cold weather,
I'm ever to bring my five hundred together.

FOR NOTORIETY. 99

But my clear Lady L can't you hit on some notion

At least for one night to set London in motion ?

Is there no Algerine, no Kamschatkan arrived ?

No Plcnipo-Pasha, — three-tailed and ten-wived ?

No Russian, whose dissonant consonant name

Almost rattles to fragments the trumpet of Fame ?

In short, my dear, names like Windtzschitstopschcn-

zoudhoff,
Are the only things now make an evening go smooth

off.
So get me a Russian, — till death I'm your debtor ; —
If he brings the wdiole alphabet, so much tlie better ;
And, Lord ! if he would but, in character, sup
Off his fish-oil and candles, he'd soon set mc up !"

The mania is so peculiarly English, tliat it has
lasted ever since, and will continue to endure for a
long time to come. Every East Indian, who arrives
in London, provided he can exhibit a gay and
gorgeous dress of cloth of gold and Cashmere shawls,
with diamonds and other jewels on his person, is sure
to be sought after as a lion of the season. Dwar-
kanauth Tagore, a simple merchant ; the Nepaul
princes, despots of the severest kind ; the deposed
Rajah of Coorg ; the conquered chief of Scinde ; an
ordinary office- clerk, Mohun Lai, — by dint of their
dark skins, gay turbans, and gold and jewelled
ornaments, have been sought out as lions for fashion-

TOO RUSSIAN PRISONERS AT BRIGHTON.

able parties up to tlie present liour ; and tliough tliey
could in general contribute nothing of an intellectual
character to their entertainers, they were gaudy
objects to be gazed at, and so far answered the purpose
of their exhibitors. Even while this sheet is passing
through my hands, I read in the Times of Dec. 15.
1854, that the Russian officers taken prisoners in the
Baltic, and being at Lewes and Brighton on parole,
are feted as lions by the inhabitants of both these
places, and that no party is supposed to be complete
without some Russian uniforms; while at a Public
Ball, given at Brighton to raise money for the Patriotic
Fund for the sick and wounded in the Crimea, several
of these Russian officers appeared ; and English ladies
seemed to account it an honour to be partners in
the dance with those whose countrymen were beating
out the brains and putting to death the wounded
English, even after they had given them water to
allay their thirst, and rendered them such succour as
was in their power ! Alas ! for the heartlessness and
frivolity of those to whom fashion and notoriety are
the chief objects of their idolatry, and who would
link themselves to savages and murderers for the sake
of momentary eclat !

The great happiness which we had now enjoyed in
being together ever since the loss of our dear infant.

EESOLVE TO KEl.lNQUISH THE SEA. 101

and my wife's personal experience of the " perils of the
sea," in battle and in storm, induced her to desire most
ardently that I should relinquish the profession, and
seek some other occu[)ation by which our separation
miijlit be avoided. Beino- nothino; loth to comply
with a request so much in harmony with my own
desires, I readily yiehled ; and after nuich conside-
ration and the advice of friends, the following course
was resolved upon.

I had been so successful in a pecuniary point of
view in all my voyages, by the liberality of the
owners of the ship under my command, and by for-
tunate speculations in mercantile adventures, that,
with the credit which all persons of known cliaracter
and capital could obtain, I possessed sufficient means
to establish a house of business as a shipowner and
merchant at Malta. For this I was further qualified
by my acquaintance with all the languages in use
there — Arabic, Greek, Italian, and French — as well
as by a practical knowledge of the trade of the
Mediterranean, and especially of the value of ships.
This, indeed, was most important ; for Malta being at
that time the chief depot of all the goods forced into
the continental ports in defiance of the decrees of
Buonaparte for their exclusion, was the greatest mart
of trade within the Mediterranean ; and as all ships
u 3

LIBRARY

tJNTVERFJTTY OF CALIFORNIA
S.AVTA BARBARA

102 ' SAIL FROM LONDON,

taken as prizes by our cruisers there were taken into
Malta for adjudication and sale, it was the great
centre of activity for this branch of traffic also.

It was accordingly resolved that I should lay in, in
London, a general cargo of goods suited to the
peculiar market of the island, in which I expended
all my own capital, and as much credit as I thought
it safe to obtain ; and placing them on board the ship
Gallant Schemer, Captain Worts, took my place as
passenger with him, so as to superintend the landing
and sale. I therefore resigned the command of the
Scipio, very much to the regret of lier owners, and
prepared to carry out my plan, being furnished at
the same time with letters of credit and introduction
from some of the first houses in London to their
correspondents in Malta.

The question was next discussed whether my wife
and daughter should accompany me or not ; but on
the whole, it was thought better that I should first go
alone, get comfortably settled in a house, and have
all the preliminaries of my establishment completed,
and that then my wife and daughter should join me ;
a decision which was deemed the more prudent from
another reason ; namely, that my wife's confinement
might be expected in a month after leaving London,
and if this should fall out at sea, it would be ex-

TO SETTLE AT MALTA. 103

ceeclingly inconvenient. We parted therefore with
the strongest conviction that we should meet again at
Malta in three or four months at farthest ; instead of
which, we never met again (though both ardently de-
siring it) for ten long years ; when the son, born
within a month after our separation, was ten years
old before I beheld his face or he mine, for reasons
which will appear in the sequel.

In crossing the Bay of Biscay we had a heavy
sea, which sufficiently sustained the reputation of that
hollow indentation of the coast for its angry billows
rolling in from the vast expanse of the Western
Ocean, though we happily had a fine moonlight, which
is always so w^elcome at sea. We anchored at Gib-
raltar for a few days, during which I made a pleasant
excursion to the Spanish towns of Algeziras and San
Roque, and a trip up the pretty stream called the
little Quadaiquiver; but my thoughts were so ab-
sorbed by home and its associations, that I was the
least happy, perhaps, of all the party, and soon after
suffered an attack of fever, with great depression of
spirits.

Within the Straits we encountered a heavy gale
off the African coast ; and, at its cessation, the young
moon appeared in its thin crescent form, like silver

H 4

104 LINES TO THE MOON.

inlaid in the most beautiful azure, so clear and deep
seemed the vault of heaven. I know of nothing so
suggestive, at sea at least, as the moon in all her
phases, of love and friendship, and the thoughts of
those we have left behind us ; and full of these I
penned the following lines : —

TO THE MOON.

Hail to thy lamp again, pale Moon !

In silence sinking down the west ;
Hail ! tho' thy beams disturb too soon

The halcyon calm that charmed my breast.
Oh ! why, in this expectant hour,

Didst thou arrest my wandering eye ?
Why, but to triumph in thy power,

And wake me from my dream of joy !

II.

Fair Queen ! thy first revolving round,

Since exiled from my dear loved home,
Saw me o'er Biscay's billows bound,

Regardless of their angry foam ;
While gazing on thy welcome ray.

Remembered scenes my heart absorb,
As Feeling poured, in simple lay

Her vespers to thy new-born orb.

LINES TO THE MOON. 105

But when, returning from thy course,

To re-assume soft Evening's reign,
As fell Disease, with venomed force.

Poured maddening pangs thro' every vein,
Thy troubled disk was veiled in cloud,

And dimly seemed thy lamp to burn,
With paler beams to wrap my shroud,

With fainter fires to light my urn.

IV.

Oh ! I had lulled each pang to rest,

That Recollection loved to trace,
And Hope had soothed my love-lorn breast.

With Friendship's near and fond embrace ;
When gazing round Heaven's fretted dome,

Soon as I saw thy silver ray.
My heart again was filled with Home,

And Joy's fair prospects swept away.

V.

And now, on this auspicious eve.

That crowns our triumph o'er the storm,
While future hopes my heart relieve,

I see again thy crescent form.
Retiring down the blushing sky.

Still warm from Day's expiring beams.
Like the soft tints of home-felt joy,

Reflected faint in Memory's dreams.

106 INFORMATION OF THE PLAGUE

As I was now a passengei" on board the ship and
had no duty to perform, I read usually eight liours a
day, and had still abundant time to be on deck when
any evolutions were to be performed, of which it was
always agreeable to me to be at least a spectator. As
I had now been twice over the same track, there were
no novelties to attract my attention. Nothing re-
markable, therefore, transpired on our voyage till we
were within about a day's sail of Malta; when, to the
great horror of some, and the disappointment of all, we
had a signal from the commodore of the fleet — for we
were sailing under convoy of the Blossom sloop of war
— to shorten sail, and each ship to send a boat to the
commodore for instructions.

On our boat's return we learnt that a sloop of war
had been dispatched by the Governor of Malta to
meet such ships as might be bound for the island, to
communicate to their commanders that the plague
had broken out in La Valetta, and was raging with
the greatest fury ; and to command all vessels having
Government stores on board to repair to Port Mahon,
in Minorca, leaving the commanders of other ships to
enter Malta or proceed elsewhere as they thought
best.

As the cargo we had embarked was selected with
especial reference to the Maltese market, and would

KAGING AT JLALTA. 107

lose considerably in value if taken elsewhere, our
commander concurred with me in the determination
to proceed direct to Malta, though the greater portion
of the fleet were soon scattered in all directions, some
obeying the order respecting Government stores, and
others, never having been in plague-stricken ports
before, terrified at the danger. We had a remark-
able instance in our own ship, of the powerftd in-
fluence of fear in predisposing persons to become
aftccted with the disease itself. On our anchorino- in
INIalta, we were forbidden, by orders from the shore,
to land any of the passengers, officers, or crew, though
boats would be sent for the discharge of our cargo, if
we desired it ; the Governor having determined that
no more persons should enter the island, as he con-
ceived that the crowding of the population, and the
consumption of provisions and water would only ag-
gravate the sufferings of the people. The persons who
brought us this intelligence were Maltese belonging
to the quarantine establishment, and they looked
gloomy and despairing enough, so as to cast a damp
on the spirits of all on board, except two of the
youngest officers, who conceived the idea of a very
heartless practical joke.

Among the passengers was a stout, over-fed, hypo-
chondriacal subject, an army clothier from Bond

108 INFLUENCE OF FEAR.

Street, who had come out to Malta on some business
connected with his supplying the troops with apparel.
He had never been at sea before, was sick on the
least motion of the vessel, and was so timid as to be
alarmed at the slightest sign of danger. One of the
young officers alluded to, with a view to frighten this
passenger with the fear of the plague, went into his
berth or bed-place, had his face and lips rubbed over
with flour, to make him look deadly pale, and a table
placed b}^ his bed-side with phials of medicine la-
belled, and boxes of pills. His companion, going on
deck, accosted the army clothier in melancholy tones,
saying, " Well, Sir, it 's likely to be soon all over
with us ; the plague is already on board, and my
young friend below is suffering from a violent attack
of it." The passenger disbelieved it at first ; but, on
the officer challenging him to come and see, he went
down to the supposed sick man's berth, and the sight
so shocked him that he was instantly seized with
faintness, which was followed by vomiting and diar-
rhoea to a degree that, had it not been arrested by the
invalid jumping out of bed and assuring him it was
all a hoax, would possibly have brought on the plague
in reality. This is perfectly conformable to the general
maxim which experience has established as a true
one, namely, that the plague rarely attacks those

TERROR OF THE ISLA^^DEllS. 109

who are not afraid of it ; and hence, medical men
and merchants long resident in the East walk fear-
lessly through the ranks of the dead and the dying
when their duty calls them so to do ; and the first
victims that are seized are those who are predisposed
for the attack by physical weakness and nervous de-
pression. We all agreed, however, in condemning this
youthful and mischievous prank, and were rejoiced
when the terrified victim of the ill-timed joke re-
covered his health and composure, which it took
three or four days to effect.

We could gather no information respecting the
number of deaths on shore, except from the pratique
officers who came alongside ; but the accounts differed
materially, from 1,500 to 3,000 a day ; both, no doubt,
above the real number. But as the plague had not
been known to be in Malta for upwards of a century,
it was so new to every one, that from the Governor
down to the sentry on guard at the landing place,
every one seemed to be terror-struck, and to have
become quite incompetent to give directions or obey
them. We heard that the reluctance on the part of
the survivors to bury the dead was such, that the
prisons were obliged to be opened, and the convicts
released from their sentences on condition of their
performing this office; and as these men had conceived

110 CURRENTLY RECEIVED ACCOUNT

the notion that brandj and other strong spirits were the
best preventives of the contagion, they were nearly
all drunk while engaged in this duty, so that most
revolting and disgusting scenes were the result. All
kinds of stories also were prevalent as to the origin
of the disease ; the most accredited of which was the
following, which I transcribe from a letter written to
my wife in England, at this period, dated Malta,
June 11. 1813: —

" It appears that early in May a ship arrived here
from Alexandria, laden with flax, having the plague
on board, and having lost several of her crew on the
passage. She was accordingly put under guard In
Marsamashute harbour. It was suggested by the
merchants here to burn her ; but this the Governor
refused to do, under the hope of saving the lives and
property on board. All her crew, however, fell
victims to this terrible disease, as well as some Maltese
who went on board her, but were not allowed to re-
turn on shore. She was then towed round to St.
Paul's Bay, where she lay, I think, fifteen days with-
out a living creature on board, and is now either sunk
or intended to be. No one can ascertain with
certainty how the disease was communicated to the
shore, since no one came out of the ship that ever

OF ITS ORIGIN AND PROGllESS. 1 1 1

went on board lier ; but rumour attributes it to some
goods received out of her by one of the health-guards,
whose whole family have died, and whose house is
burnt to the ground. It soon spread rapidly ; and
although the number of deaths daily vary, they are
on the increase, in spite of every caution that human
prudence can suggest. A transport came in here
dismasted, and the captain, in opposition to all advice,
employing some persons from the shore to refit, got
the plague on board, and yesterday we witnessed the
melancholy spectacle of the vessel being towed out
to sea, to be burnt with everything on board her, and
the crew set on some isolated spot. Captain Chilcott,
of the navy, with a wife and five grown daughters,
resident here, lost one servant, and another is now
lying ill of the plague ; in consequence of which they
were all ordered to abandon their house, and are
forced to the Lazaretto, having taken leave of their
friends without a hope of ever returning to them.
So rifrid are the reo-ulations, that the instant an in-
dividual is seized with the pestilence, himself and
family are taken to the Lazaretto, and from tlie
niimber of persons actually having the plague there,
death is almost inevitable ; while such is the general
alarm, that it is not considered safe to wait until
those symptoms confirm themselves before they are

112 WHETHER CONTAGIOUS OR NOT.

removed from the rest of society. When this is the
case, the health-guards of course do not touch them ;
and if the poor wretches have not strength to walk
along, they are literally dragged through the streets
with a sort of boat-hook, and when in the Lazaretto,
can receive little assistance beyond what they are
enabled to afford themselves. The instant they are
dead they are thrown, by flesh-hooks, into a cart,
taken to a distant spot, their bodies burnt, and all
their property and effects destroyed. Throughout
the town every house is shut up ; and every street
where the plague has been is barricaded with gates
and sentinels, so that we can see no one, hear from
no one, and all is at a stand."

These statements, if they are all strictly accurate
as here reported, would seem to favour the contagion-
theory ; but in opposition to it may be set this other
great fact, namely, that when the medical staff" of the
island had exhausted all their skill and powers in
vain, a body of Jews from Smyrna, well acquainted
with the disease and its appropriate remedies, offered
their services to the Maltese Government, on con-
dition of being paid a certain sum per head for those
only that they cur>.'d. This offer was accepted : the
Jews arrived, went freely among the dead and dying,

FEAR rilEDISrOSES TO DISEASE. 113

liandled their bodies without any visible precaution,
and cured about ninety per cent, of those attacked,
by taking them in hand on the first symptoms of the
disease appearing ; and not one of these medical
attendants was affected with the disease during all
their stay in the island.

So powerful a protection is confidence, and so
certain a predisposer to the disease is fear, that it was
currently said and believed here that an experiment
was tried on two convicts, one of whom was placed
in a bed, in which he was told a man had died of the
pliigue a few hours before, which was not true, and
he caught the disease, and died of it ; while the
other was placed in a bed in which a man had
actually died on the preceding day, and the clothes
were not changed, but the convict was told that
the bed had never been slept in by any but healthy
persons, and he was not affected in the slightest
degree.

Considering the great interests at stake, it is as
wonderful as it is discreditable, both to the govern-
ment and the medical profession, that such a course
of inquiry and experiment is not set on foot and
pursued rigorously by impartial persons wedded to
no previous theory, as should settle the question de-

VOL. II. I

114 QUAKANTINE AT PRESENT INJURIOUS.

finitively, whether the plague is really contagious or
not ; and if the latter, to abolish the system of qua-
rantine and all its injuries and absurdities at once and
for ever ; but if the former, so to revise the system
as to make it as efficacious and as little injurious as
possible.

115

CHAP. VII.

Sail for Smyrna. — Leaving goods behind at Malta. — Excursion
to Clazoniene, the city of Auaxagoras. — Description of the
ruins. — Causeway. — Theatre. — Acropolis. — Fate of Anaxa-
goras for being a man before his time. — Continued disastrous
news of deaths and failures in Malta. — Loss of all uiy pro-
perty there, and increased liabilities. — Second instance of
pecuniary misfortune without fault. — -Resolution to try new
ground by going to Egypt.

It was arranged that all the goods laid in by me
for the market of Malta should be landed here, under
charge of the ship's agent, to be sold as opportunities
might offer, when the plague should abate and busi-
ness be resumed : and the whole was accordingly
placed in one of the public magazines or warehouses,
after which we took our departure for Smyrna, ar-
riving there on the 30th of June, to await the pro-
gress of events. I was kindly received by my friend,
Mr. James Brant, who made me take up my abode
with him ; and nothing could exceed the friendly
attentions I daily received at his hands.

During my stay, I became acquainted with Captain
Clavell of the Orlando frigate, who had succeeded

1 2

116 EXCURSION TO CLAZOMENE.

Captain Hope in the Salsette, and with the Rev. Mr.
Renouard, chaplain to the British Factory of the
Levant Company at Smyrna, an accomplished scholar
and a great Orientalist and antiquary. By Captain
Clavell's kindness, an excursion was planned, to
unite the pleasures of a sporting and an exploring
party, by a visit to the site of Clazomene, the birth-
place of Anaxagoras, the astronomer and philosopher,
and the preceptor of Socrates, Euripides, Themisto-
cles, and Pericles, the most illustrious group of pupils
or disciples, perhaps, that were ever taught by one
master.

I must venture on a short account of this excur-
sion. We embarked at nine o'clock in the evening,
after dining together at the English consul's, Mr.
Worry's, in order that we might start, with the land
breeze which blows off shore and right out of the
Bay, soon after midnight, as beating down against
the sea bi'eeze of the day would be very tedious.
At three o'clock a.m., the boatswain's whistle roused
us all from our cots and hammocks, and was soon
followed by the hoarse summons, " All hands, up
anchor ! ahoy ! " There is scarcely any scene more
animating, perhaps, than that of a fine frigate with
smart officers and an ample crew, getting under way
with all possible expedition ; and it is the usual

EXCURSION TO CLAZOMENE. 117

ambition of naval commanders to excel each other in
the rapidity of such evolutions. In less than ten
minutes, the anchor was at the bow and every sail
set, and the bright starlight was soon succeeded by
the glowing dawn opening behind the eastern moun-
tains of Asia ]\Iinor. We anchored at sunset in the
harbour of Vouria, and dined with the captain and
officers in the chief cabin. Vouria was the Chytrium
of the ancients, and Clazomene was on an island
opposite to it. From being subsequently connected
to the main land by an artificial causeway made by
Alexander of Macedon, as he afterwards did to the
celebrated island of Tyre, this place is now called
by the Turks the " Island of the Ruad," and we
were conveyed across to it by a boat from the
shore.

Though the city of Clazomene has entirely dis-
appeared, the substantial work of the mole or cause-
way is perfectly visible beneath the water, coming
up near to the surface, having the form of a reaping-
hook with its outer face to the seo, to bear the full
brunt of the waves, and forming, like the breakwater
at Plymouth, a smooth cove or bay in the hollow of
its concave segment of a circle. Tracing the shore,
along the north-east extremity of the island, ruins of
extensive foundations were to be seen on the beach,

I 3

118 EUINS AT CLAZOMENE.

and receding behind it, constructed of large well-
hewn blocks of stone, some of them being probably
the baths described here by Pausanias and Livy.

Ascending the hill, fragments of buildings were to
be seen at every step, and the whole ground was
covered with broken pottery, — some highly glazed,
of fine texture, black within and brown without, with
Etruscan and Greek figures greatly mutilated. They
appeared to be fragments of vases and vessels of
religious and domestic use, the handles, lids, and
bases of many being perfect.

On gaining the summit of the hill, which com-
pletely commanded the whole island, and particu-
larly the port below, we found a level space of about
200 yards in diameter, and nearly circular. In the
centre were the foundations of large buildings, and
on the slope of the hill, where the ascent was easiest,
were the remains of an ancient Greek theatre, the
stone benches rising in semicircles, one above the
other, being in many parts nearly perfect, the site
commanding, as was the custom with the Greeks in
choosing the spots for such edifices, a noble and ex-
tensive prospect, so that the spectators, in their un-
roofed theatre, might enjoy all the freshness and
beauty of Nature while witnessing the highest per-
formances of the dramatic art. Around the outer

ITS ACROPOLIS. 119

edge of this elevated platform were a number of
massive unhewn stones, as if forming originally por-
tions of a Cyclopean wall, and probably enclosing the
theatre and the Acropolis, as the Parthenon is in-
cluded within that of Athens.

We descended into the middle of the island, which
is the lowest part of it, as its two most distant and op-
posite extremities are elevated promontories. From
the summit of what we inferred to be the Acropolis,
to the bottom of the valley between, the ground was
cultivated for corn by the few Turks residing on the
island, of whom there were only three families !
Along this valley were scattered extensive fragnipnts
of buildings, with pedestals and shafts of colunms,
both fluted and plain, about four feet in diameter
and twenty in length, with broken cornices, mould-
ings, and pieces of alabaster.

Clazoraene was founded by the lonians, 850 years
before Christ, and both Pliny and Strabo describe
the artificial peninsula or causeway of Alexander of
Macedon uniting the island to the mainland. It
is as the birthplace of Anaxagoras, however, that
it most deeply interested us, as he was certainly one
of the most remarkable among the many remarkable
men of antiquity. He travelled into Egypt for im-
provement, and used to say that he pi'eferred a grain

I 4

120 FATE or ANAXAGORAS.

of wisdom to heaps of gold. About the second year
of tlie 78th Olympiad, a meteoric stone fell near the
river Egas in Thrace, which excited his attention,
and led him to theorize on the formation of the
heavenly bodies ; some of his ideas being, as we
might well expect in such an age, strangely different
from our own, but many in conformity with what was
afterwards received as truth. He regarded the sun
as a mass of fire, and ascribed the whiteness of the
Milky Way to the native light of its innumerable stars.
He considered comets to be wandering stars, and was
the first who wrote on the phases and eclipses of the
moon ; and anticipating in his sagacious mind the
discoveries of the telescope, he taught that the moon
contained seas, mountains, and valleys, like our own
globe, and was in all probability inhabited.

The attempts of Anaxagoras to explain by natural
causes the phenomena of the heavens were regarded
by the Athenians as likely to subvert the influence
of the gods ; and the philosopher, with all his family,
was proscribed as an enemy of the established re-
ligion, accused of impiety, and condemned to die ;
but he ridiculed the sentence, and said truly that it
had long been pronounced against him by Nature, and
would be the fate of his persecutors also. Pericles,
his friend and disciple, interposed in his behalf, but

FATE OF ANAXAGOKAS. 121

the conversion of death into banishment was the only
mitigation he had the influence to procure. Anaxa-
goras died at the age of seventy-two, 428 years bo-
fore Christ ; and being asked, during his ilhiess,
whether his body should be carried into his own
country, he answered, " No ! as the road that led to
the other side of the grave was as long from one
place as the other." When the people of Lampsa-
cus, the place of his exile, inquired of him before his
death whether he wished anything to be done in
commemoration of him, he replied, " Yes ! let the
boys be allowed to play on the anniversary of my
death." This, it is said, was carefully observed for
a long period ; and the time thus dedicated to relax-
ation was, from that circumstance, called Anaxago-
reia. Yet, this once renowned city, the birthplace
of this illustrious sage who could penetrate the fu-
ture, and soar above the prevailing superstitions of
his age, was now the habitation of a few obscure in-
dividuals, lost in more than primitive ignorance.

The sporting party having returned from their
excursion, with little to reward their trouble, we all
re-embarked on board the frigate, and returned to
Smyrna, after a most agreeable cruise.

During the remainder of my stay here, having un-
fortunately too much leisure, of a most unproductive

122 CONTINUED DISASTROUS NEWS

kind, I visited everj spot of interest in and around
the city, to a distance of ten or twelve miles, always
finding companions ready to join in such excursions,
which were made on horseback, leaving the city
before sunrise, and returning after sunset, to avoid
the sultry lieat of the August sun. I must resist the
temptation, however, strong as it is, to record many
interesting incidents and descriptions, which would
be strictly in place in a Book of Travels, but might be
thought, perhaps, less adapted to an Autobiography ;
and yet I find it extremely difficult to draw the line ;
but in passing over some hundreds of pages of my
unpublished Journal, still in manuscript, I cannot be
said to err on the side of exuberance.

The most painful portion of my stay here was that
which brought me, week after week, more and more
distressing intelligence from Malta as to the continu-
ance of the plague there ; the deaths and bankruptcies
of individuals with whom some portion of my pro-
perty was lodged, and the burning down of maga-
zines in which goods were stored, because all the par-
ties employed in them had died, and no insurance
could cover such calamities as these. The result was
that I not only lost by this state of things all the
earnings of my profession as an officer and com-

OF DEATHS Al^D FAILUK]:S AT JIALTA. 123

mancler (and tliey were considerable) during a period
of several years, but I became involved in heavy-
liabilities for goods obtained on credit, in addition to
those paid for with cash; and I had not \00l. left nie
in the world, with a wife and two children at home
to remit to for their support ; and with no certainty
whatever as to any occupation for the future without
returning again to sea, which we both desired if pos-
sible to avoid.

Hei^e then is the second instance in which I ivas sub-
jected to great pecuniary loss, from, no faidt of my own,
hut from circumstances ivhich I could neither avoid nor
control.

On consulting with my friends as to the best course
I could pursue, Malta being still unpromising as a
field of action, perhaps, for many months to come;
and Smyrna, suffering from the effects of the mercan-
tile stagnation occasioned by this state of things, offer-
ing no hope of advantageous employment, it was
thought best to try entirely new ground ; and Egypt
was suggested as a very likely field. The pasha,
Mohammed Ali, who had just succeeded to power
there, was known to desire the aid of Europeans of
talent and character in his service, and by letters of
introduction to our Consul General there, of which a

124 PREPARE TO EMBARK FOR EGYPT.

large number could be furnished me from Smyrna, I
might obtain a favourable introduction to his notice.
This course was therefore resolved upon, and I
began at once to make preparations for my voyage to
this new and, by me at least, hitherto untrodden
region.

125

CHAP. VIII.

Embark for Egypt in the schooner Theodosia. — Naval veteran
commander's appearance and habits. — Watering at Vourla,
and passage through the Archipelago. — Sight of Candia, and
Mount Ida of the Cretan Jove. — Anecdotes of grog-drink-
ing by the points of the compass. — First sight of the shores of
Egypt — Porapey'sPillar. — Unfavourable impressions on land-
ing at Alexandria. — Agreeable state of society among the Eu-
ropeans.— Excursions during the day.— JNIareotis, Aboukir,&c.
— Singular Club, called " The Bucolicanic Association." —
Anniversary celebrated in the gardens of Alexandria. —
Prize poem for translation. — Ode to Hope. — Object of my
visit to Egypt not neglected. — Resolution taken to repair to
Grand Cairo.

A FAVOURABLE Opportunity offering for my going to
Egypt, I readily embraced it, and embarked on the
30th of August in the King's schooner Theodosia,
bound for Alexandria, a free passage having been
solicited for me by the consul, and cheerfully granted
by the commander. This naval veteran was at least
fifty years of age, and had seen a great deal of hard
service; but having no family interest at the Admi-
ralty, or parliamentary interest in any borough, he
still remained only a lieutenant, though scores of
" youngsters," as he called them, had been promoted

126 APPEARANCE OF NAVAL COMMANDER.

to commanders and post-captains over his head.
This was too frequently the case in the naval service
at that period ; and its general result was to make
those neglected officers first dejected and then reckless,
most frequently giving way to intemperate habits
which grew upon them by indulgence, and often
ended in making them confirmed sots, which again
operated in preventing them from obtaining either
promotion or employment. Our commander had not
quite arrived at the last stage, but he was far gone
towards it ; and his rubicund face, enlarged and car-
buncled nose, filmy eyes, and alcoholic breath, gave
unmistakeable signs of his confirmed habits. Never-
theless he was " every inch a seaman," and one of
the most jovial of companions when sufficiently
braced up for mirth, though heavy, dull, and hypo-
chondriacal till the requisite stimulus had been taken.
Leaving the Bay of Smyrna, we toiiched at the
anchorage of Vourla to fill up our water at a gushing
fountain there ; and, sailing from thence, we rounded
Cape Carabourna, the southern promontory of the
Gulf of Smyrna, passed round the north end of Scio,
going between that island and Ipsera, and thence
through the Faro channel, passing Milo and other
islands, and then steering away south, with a fair
wind, for Alexandria.

GROG-DRINKING BY TOINTS OF COMPASS. 127

On the fourth clay after leavmg Smyrna, we came
in sight of Candia, and had a fine view of the Cretan
Ida, or the Mount of Jove, towering its head above
the clouds as if in conscious majesty. TJie wind,
however, here lieaded us off, and blew with great
violence, so as to oblige us to reduce our canvas, and
beat to windward under reefed sails. The harder it
blew, the more the commander seemed to require the
consolation which his grog alone appeared capable of
aflPording him ; and his calls to the cabin-boy for
another glass, were more frequent than the heaving
of the log, though this took place at every bell, or
every half hour of the watch. It was amusing,
though at the same time melancholy, to see how the
use of stimulants deadens the palate, and requires in-
creased strength with every successive dose to
produce the desired excitement. From habit, the
boy understood his captain's taste pretty well, and
made his grog " stiflfer," as it is called, than the
ordinary standard of strength for drinking ; and a
kind of thermometrical test had sprung up between
them, regulated by the points of the compass, in
which north signified the pure spirit, south the water,
and east and west equal portions of each. In the
early part of the day, therefore, half an hour after
breakfast, the captain would call for a south-wester.

128 GKOG-DKINKING BY POINTS OF COMPASS.

which would mean a mixture of one fourtli brandy
and three fourths water ; by noon the taste would
have been gradually brought up to an east-and-wester,
which would mean half brandy and half water.
After dinner, a north-easter would be acceptable,
composed of three fourths brandy and one fourth
water ; and this was professedly the limit which the
commander set to himself, intending not to go beyond,
regarding this as temperate, for it was his constant
boast that he never drank drams, that being left for
drunkards. Several times, however, it had happened
that when the north-easter was prepared by the boy,
the captain would send it down for a point or two
more of northing, meaning a little more brandy to
be added ; and this had lately been done so often,
that, to save himself trouble, the boy brought him up
at eight bells, after a wet, stormy day, a tumbler of
pure brandy, without any water at all. The captain
tasted it, and his commendation of it was enthusiastic.
" By God ! Jack," said he, '' this is excellent ; but
it is a pity that it should not be made perfect — a
pomt or two more of northing is all that it requires."
To which the boy replied, " I beg your pardon. Sir,
but that is impossible, for it is due north already ! "

On the 9th of September, just ten days after leav-
ing Smyrna, we first made the coast of Africa to the

ALEXANDRIA. 129

westward of Alexandria in the bay of Cape Rosa.
We sounded in forty-five fathoms, with a soft muddy
bottom, and the sea-water greatly discoloured by the
discharge of the turbid stream of the Nile. Standing
eastward along a low, flat, sandy and barren coast,
we descried the column usually called Pompey's
Pillar, rising so high above the town of Alex-
andria that for two hours at least it was the only ob-
ject in sight. As we drew nearer, the castle, occu-
pying the site of the ancient Pharos, began to be de-
veloped, and then the flat-roofed dwellings, the flags
of the European consuls, and the obelisk called Cleopa-
tra's Needle, — all suofsestino; reminiscences of the his-
tory of Alexander, Pompey, the Ptolemies, Caesar, An-
tony and Cleopatra, the Saracens Omar and Amrou,
the Soldans, the Mamalukes, and all the successive
rulers of Egypt.

The aspect of the town was anything but promis-
ing, as seen from the harbour; but on landing the
scene was revolting in the extreme, — so much appa-
rent poverty, dirt, decay, and stagnation, I had never
before witnessed ; and its contrast with the splendour
of the ancient Alexandria, — when it was the great mart
of nations for concentrating the commerce of the
eastern and western world, the school of philosophy,
poetry, and science, and the court of the accom

VOL. IL K

130 EUROPEAN SOCIETY AT ALEXANDRIA:

plished Ptolemies, — was painful in the extreme.
But I must not trust myself with the description.

I was most hospitably received by Mr. Peter Lee,
then British Consul at Alexandria, brother of Mr.
John Lee at Smyrna, and of Mr. Edward Lee, the head
of the house in London ; and in the society of his
accomplished wife, the sister of Miss Arboyne, whom
we had met at the family of the Brants in England,
I found all the comforts of a second home.

Among the inmates of the same house, guests like
myself, were Mr. Schutz, a wealthy merchant just
returning to Europe, after acquiring a large fortune in
the corn trade of Egypt, and Signer Martucci, a Ro-
man traveller, who spoke English well, had seen much
of the world, was a good musician, and an agreeable
companion. I was soon introduced to all the Euro-
pean Consuls and their families ; and in the course of
a week knew every one in Alexandria whose acquaint-
ance was worth cultivating.

French and Italian being the languages chiefly
spoken by the Europeans and Levantines, and the
manners of France prevailing among all these classes,
we had most agreeable reunions every evening ; as
each Consul, as matter of duty, kept open house for
an evening reception once in the week ; and on
Sunday evenings the parties were still more numer-
ous. After an hour devoted to receptions, from seven

THEIR REUNIONS. 131

lO eight, music was usually introduced, and pleasant
chamber concerts given, in which Signor Martucci
and myself usually took our parts, and from half past
nine to eleven the evening was wound up by a dance.
No other refreshments than coffee, eau sucr4, and le-
monade were produced for the visitors, so that the
entertainments were inexpensive, and therefore easy
to be often repeated ; and as the houses were large,
there were always rooms or balconies to which those
who did not join in the music or dance might retire
for conversation. How much more rational is this
than the heavy dinners and costly wines of England,
which cannot, by reason of their expense, be fre-
quently given, and which, when they are, keep the
gentlemen at table till ten o'clock, and the ladies
without their society, while they are sitting over their
wine ; so that the whole evening is cut up, unless the
party is continued till an unreasonable and unhealthy
late hour.

During the daytime, accompanied by Mr. Lee, or
some of his household, I visited every spot of interest
in and ai'ound Alexandria, including the supposed
baths of Cleopatra to the west, but which are conjec-
tured to have been catacombs — now in a state of
great dilapidation, but once highly adorned with ar-
chitectural and sculptured details — as well as the
K 2

132 THE BUCOLICANIC ASSOCIATION.

Lake Mareotis behind the citj, and the fortified
heights raised by the English and French armies in
their contest for the possession of Egypt — the scene of
the brave Abercrombie's deatli and victory, and the
bay of Aboukir, in which Nelson destroyed the great
fleet of France under Napoleon.

Among other novelties there had been recently
established here, by the Europeans and Levantines,
a sort of Club, called " The Bucolicanic Association,"
the object of which, as its name imports, was the
enjoyment of rural parties in the few gardens which
have been artificially made by art and industry amid
the arid sands of Alexandria. It had a king and
queen resident at Cairo, where its numbers were
greatest, and at Alexandria was a prince regent, with
princesses, admirals, ministers of finance and police,
counsellors of state, and, in short, every grade of
office known vxnder a well constituted monarchy.
The anniversary of its foundation happened during
my stay at Alexandria, and I was invited to join its
ranks as a visitor or guest. We dined early a^/resco,
and on returning in the evening, were all fatigued
with the excessive warmth which prevailed during
this festive meeting.

One of the customs of the Association was for the
ladies to propose subjects for essays or poems, or to
offer existing poems in one language for translation

l'espekance. 133

into another ; and the successful competitor was
made an honorary member, if not already enrolled
in the body, or elevated a grade in rank, if already
within its members. As visitors were thus admitted
as competitors, a copy of a French Ode to L'Espe-
rance was presented to myself and others by the
beautiful and accomplished daughter of the Sar-
dinian Consul, Mademoiselle Thedenard, of Turin,
as her own composition, for translation into English ;
and as my version obtained the prize, and obtained
for me the rank of an honorary member, I record
it here, to show, by tlie original, tliat even in
these rural and somewhat boisterous enjoyments of
mirth and good cheer, there were not wanting the
softening influences of beauty and poetry to grace
and dignify its pleasures.

L' ESPERANCE

Salut ! 6 divine Esperance !

Toi, dont le cliarme seducteur,
Donne una aile a la jouissance,

Ote une epine a la douleur :
Quand sur son sein I'homme repose,

Ah ! qu'il goute un doux abandon !
Si le Plaisir est une rose,

L'Esperance en est le boutnn.

K 3

1 34 L ESPERANCE :

Ton ancre soutien la nacelle

Du mallieureux, battue des vents ;
Toi seule lui reste fidelle,

Quand ses amis sont inconstants :
Malgre les verroux effroyables,

Dans un cachot tu suis nos pas ;
Si les Enfers sont redoutables,

Cast que tu n'y penetre pas.

ni.

Des amours cliarmante nourrice,

Que seraient ils sans ton secours ?
Ce sont tes soins, ton kit propice,

Que les font croitre tous les jours ;
En vain, apres bien des traverses,

lis sont au comble de leurs vceux :
Sur tes genoux quand tu les berces,

lis sont souvent bien plus Leureux.

IV.

Je te vois repousser dans I'ombre

Et les craintes et les regrets,
Et sur I'avenir le plus sombre

Jeter un voile pleins d'attraits ; —
Quand, par les maux I'ame epuisee,

Touclie a I'heure ou tous n'est plus rien,
Au loin tu montre I'Elysee,

Et la mort nous paroit un bien.

ITS TRANSLATION, 135

HOPE.
I.

Hail ! Hope, fair daughter of the skies.

The charm of whose seductive reign
Gives wings to pleasure as it flies,

And plucks away the thorn from pain ;
Lulled on thy bosom to repose,

How sweetly sleep our mortal cares,
And oh ! if Pleasure be a rose

Hope is the sweetest bud it bears.

II.
Man's shattered bark thine anchor stays,

Till tlie rude storm has o'er him blown,
And thy bright star still lends its rays.

When fortune, friends, and all are flown ;
Tho' frightful darkness gathers round,

Tliy light the wanderer's path can cheer ;
Nor would Hell's self a hell be found.

But that thou never enterest there-
in.
Of love the tenderest nurse confest,

To thee the infant passion clings ;
And fed at thy propitious breast.

With life's invigorating springs,
It finds at length, when quitting thee,

Possession's warmest vow to meet,
Fondled on thy maternal knee,

Its bliss was often more complete. ,

K 4

13G DETERMINE TO GO TO CAIRO

IV.

O ! Hope ! 'tis thine o'er present ill

Thy magic ray of light to pour,
And the dark future brighten still

With pictured scenes of joy in store ;
E'en when the soul exhausted yields

In that last hour when life must cease,
The dream of thine Elysian fields

Makes death itself a pledge of peace.

Amidst all this I'ound of pleasure, however, I had
never forgotten the object of my visit to Egypt, which
was to seek some employment of a mercantile cha-
racter, by which I might hope to recover, in some
degree, my heavy losses by the plague at Malta, and
the bankruptcies, burnings, and destruction of
property to which it gave rise. On this subject I
had frequent conferences with Mr. Lee and other
friends, and all a'greed that the Pasha, Mohammed
A li, just then firmly established in power, would be
very likely to value such information as I could give
him on maritime and mercantile affairs ; that the
best thing to be done would be for me to repair to
Cairo, where he then was, with such letters of re-
commendation as could be afforded me from hence ;
and through the medium of the Consul General there,
obtain a personal introduction to His Highness, to

TO VISIT MOHAMMED ALL 137

state my views and wishes, and place my services at
his disposal. To this arrangement I readily acceded,
as I had now an additional motive for exertion,
having just received intelligence from England of
my dear wife giving birth to a son on the 29th of
June, little more than a month after my leaving her
for Malta, to which place it was therefore a fortunate
circumstance that she did not accompany me.

I might occupy many chapters with the result of
my researches and observations at Alexandria, both
as respects its ancient remains and the state of its
modern society ; but rich and abundant as these
materials are in novelty and interest, I pass them by
to continue my Personal Narrative only.

138

CHAP. IX.

Voyage from Alexandria to Rosetta by the Lakes. — Battle-
fields of Abercrombie and Nelson. — Rosetta and its environsr

— Costume of the British Consul. — Embark on the Nile for
Cairo. — The inundation. — Amphibious boatmen. — Current.

— Etesian winds. — Delicious climate and scenery on the
banks of the Nile. — Feast of Bairam. — Conversation with
learned pilgrims. — Their notions of geography and history.
— The Arctic regions. — First sight of Cairo and the Egyptian
pyramids. — Striking peculiarities and varieties of the popu-
lation. — Hospitable reception at the British residency. —
Character of Colonel Missett and his suite and parties. —
Visits to all the objects of interest in Cairo and its environs.
— Anecdotes of Oriental ideas and manners. — View of Cairo
from the citadel. — Ignorance of villagers. — State of European
society in Cairo generally.

On the 22nd of September, all being ready for my
journey to Cairo, I left Alexandria by the Rosetta
gate, and passing over the battle-field of General
Abercrombie's death, and along the shore of Aboukir,
the scene of Nelson's victory, we traversed the site
of the ancient city of Canopus, so famed for its re-
juvenating fountains, whose waters had the power of
restoring health and beauty to the aged and decayed,
but of which nothing now remains but heaps of frag-

VOYAGE TO ROSETTA. 139

ments in brick and marble scattered over the plain.
Arriving at the margin of the Lake Etko, we
traversed its waters, and entered on a sandy desert,
till we came in sight of the minarets of Rosetta,
which afforded an agreeable relief to the eye, after
the wide waste of yellow sands, and its insufferable
glare.

We reached Rosetta some time after sunset, and
found good quarters in one of the caravanseries of
the town. On the next morning I waited on the
British Vice-consul, a Levantine, but who always
put on a European military officer's uniform when he
received any travellers from England or France.
Nothing could exceed his politeness in accompanying
me to all the points of interest in this prettily situated,
and in many respects agreeable little town. Its
Arabic name is Rasheed ; and it is erroneously con-
sidered by the inhabitants to be the birthplace of
the celebrated caliph, Haroun-el-Raschid — meaning
Aaron the Just — which they have more literally
translated as Aaron of Rosetta ; the latter being the
name used by Europeans only, and probably of
Italian origin. The town stands on the western bank
of the Nile, with the full stream flowing northward
in front of it to the sea, a distance of some ten or
twelve miles, with a boghaz, or bar of sand banks,

140 COSTUME OF THE

which makes the entrance very difficult and dange-
rous. The fertile Delta presents a rich level plain in
front of the town, beyond the Nile, which lies between
them ; and the gardens in and around Rosetta, with
the graceful towers or minarets of the mosques, and
the excellent Turkish baths, of which, after my
journey, I was glad to partake, as well as its spacious
quays, serving as a wharf for merchandise and a
pleasant promenade along the river's bank, made up
a combination of most agreeable objects.

Wherever we went, however, our European dress
attracted attention ; the men gazing in silence — the
women and children setting up a shriek either of
surprise or alarm, and the dogs, as numerous here
as in Constantinople and Smyrna, following at our
heels with their yelling and howling bark. It
must be confessed, however, that the costume of the
Vice-consul was such as would have drawn a crowd
around him in any town of England. His stature
was at least six feet six inches ; his form remarkably
slender, and his legs so thin as to seem quite inade-
quate to the support of even his attenuated trunk.
His dress consisted of a pair of white kersemere
pantaloons as tight as the skin, and carried up to
within six inches of the arm-pits, for the sake of dis-
playing a profusion of dark braiding in front, after

BRITISH CONSUL. 141

tlie Hungarian fashion, with a pair of Hessian boots
and gold tassels. The waistcoat was not more than
eight inches in depth, to prevent its covering the
braiding of the pantaloons ; and the flaps of the coat,
which was bright scarlet, were equally short, leaving
an immense length of coat-tails, descending to a sharp
point, and covered, wherever possible, with gold em-
broidery ; a silk sash and long straight sword hung
from the upper waist, and his head was crowned with
one of those lofty pyramidal cocked-hats which rise
to a great height in the centre, and being worn at
right angles, like a parish beadle's, presented a most
imposing front ; and as he was preceded by a janissary
with a large silver-headed stick, to clear the way, the
boys who crowded round our path flew in all di-
rections at his near approach. Contrasted with the
loose flowing robes of the Arabs and Turks, the
whole appearance of the Consul was as ridiculous as
it was striking ; he seemed like a man sewn up in
garments never intended to be taken off, and so
tightly laced and buttoned as to realise exactly the
picture wdiich the Persian Ambassador in London
presents to his friend Mohammed at Ispalian, of the
contrast between his own dress and that of the
English people : —

142 EMBARK ON THE NILE

" Thro' London streets, with turban fair,
And caftan floating to the air,
I saunter on, the admiration
Of this short-coated population ;
This sewed-up race, this buttoned nation,
Who, while they boast their laws so free,
Leave not one limb at liberty ;
But live, with all their lordly speeches,
The slaves of buttons and tight breeches."

I was really glad, when our excursion was over, to
be relieved from the penance of being thus followed
by a crowd ; and enjoyed exceedingly the luxury of a
Tiirkish bath before returning to repose.

On the following morning I took my departure for
Cairo in one of the large Nile boats, called jerms,
undecked in the fore-part for carrying cargo in bulk,
and having a half-deck abaft, with very scanty ac-
commodation for passengers ; but the climate was so
delicious at this time of the year, September, that it
was most agreeable to be on deck, at night as
well as by day. It being the period when the Nile
is at its height, the stream ran with great velocity,
four or five miles an hour, towards the sea; and the
river was so full, that on both sides, the Libyan and
the Delta, the water was everywhere up to a level
with the land, and in most cases overflowed it. Tlie
limits of tlie channel or river's bed were then marked

FOR CAIRO. 143

by the palm groves on its banks, and tlie villages built
on mounds to prevent their being submerged ; while
the interior beyond the banks, as far as we could see,
seemed to be a vast lake studded with little islands,
formed of the elevated mounds on which the villages
are built ; the communication between them being by
raised causeways when the distance is short, and by
boats when it is greater. Each village, too, was sur-
rounded with palm groves of dates, and from the flat-
roofed dwellings of the villages, rose innumerable
pigeon-houses, in little towers, which gave a strange
appearance to the whole scene.

The boat, which was about fifty tons burden, was
navigated by a crew of some twenty men, with dark
swarthy skins, naked, except a rag of cloth around
the waist ; and they seemed almost amphibious, for
whenever a turn or bend of the river made the velo-
city of the stream greater, they leaped overboard,
and with a hawser passed along from hand to hand,
drew the vessel against the current. The large ample
lateen sails, of white cotton, were powerful agents,
however, in forcing us over the stream; and by a
wise and beneficent arrangement of Nature, the Ete-
sian winds, as they were called by the ancients, blow
with increased force from the north at the very season
when the counter current of the Nile runs strongest

144 SCENERY OF THE NILE.

from the south ; so that its stream is navigable at this
period both wajs, with great ease, the ascending boats
spreading all sail to the fresh breeze, and thus gliding
over the surface of the current, while the descending
boats strike their masts and yards, having then no sails,
and making their hulls deep in the water, and keep-
ing at right angles with the current, they are carried
down by its mere velocity at a rate of five miles an
hour at least.

As in my several visits to Malta I had made my-
self acquainted with its corrupt Arabic, and during
my stay at Alexandria had studied diligently the
more correct language of Egypt, to which, however,
the Maltese was a great help, I could already con-
verse pretty freely with the natives, and this made
the voyage far less tedious than it would have been.
As it was really a trading voyage on the part of the
reis or head, for so the captain was called, we stopped
at almost every village of importance on the way, and
buying and selling, bartering and exchange, occupied
several hovirs at each ; for nothing can be conceived
more tardy, or vociferous, or vacillating than their
modes of transacting business. Everywhere, however,
the scenery, though perfectly flat,was beautiful from the
extreme fertility which everywhere abounded ; and
our walks in the gardens and groves near the villages,

FEAST OF BAIRAM. 145

while the boat was detained, were most agreeable.
The delicious shade formed by the wild and luxu-
riant union of date trees, sycamores, orange bowers,
lemon walks, and the leaves of the broad banana, —
the delightful solitude which invited to repose, and
the silence which reigned around, broken only by the
waving foliage of the trees and the chirping of birds,
the freshness of the breeze tempering the balmy
warmth of the air, — everything, in short, that belonged
to Nature invited to love and happiness ; but amidst
these pleasing dreams, some wretched peasant, or
some miserable hut, destroyed the charm of the
illusion, and proved how much despotic government
can mar the greatest blessings both of nature and
of art.

It was now the commencement of the Feast of
Bairam, which immediately follows the long Moham-
medan fast of the Ramadan. During this fast no
true Moslem either eats or drinks, or smokes or inhales
perfume, or in any way gratifies his appetite between
sunrise and sunset, — and I believe these privations are
rigidly and faithfully endured, — so that more than
usual merriment and festivity were observable in the
feast which succeeded it. I had with me Yolney's
Travels in Egypt, Savary's Letters, Denon's Voy-

VOL. II. L

146 CONVERSATION WITH

age, De Paauw's Researches on the Egyptians and
Chinese, Hamilton's Egyptiaea, White's Egypt, Po-
cocke's, Norden's, and Browne's Travels, and Hero-
dotus, Strabo, Plutarch, and Pliny ; so that I was
abundantly provided with the means of filling up
several hours of the day by reading ; and my Journal,
should it ever be published, would bear testimony to
my diligence, as I find the Manuscript Diary of my
Voyage from Alexandria to Cairo to occupy nearly
a hiindred pages. But all this must be passed over
here.

I cannot omit, however, to mention the subject of
a conversation with some of the passengers, — learned
pilgrims as they considered themselves — honoured
with the title of Hadjee, as having performed the
pilgrimage to Mecca, — for the purpose of showing
the crass ignorance which prevails among those who
are deemed the best informed ; and at the same time
illustrating by a single fact, how the spread of accu-
rate geographical or scientific knowledge would tend
to weaken their confidence in the infallibility of
Mohammed and the Koran.

In conversing with them on the subject of Geo-
graphy and History, their ignorance of both was
profound ; and their credulity not less remarkable.
All the idle tales which had been current amons: the

LEAKNED PILGRIMS. 147

ancients and the people of the middle ages, respecting
Africa and its inhabitants, —

'^ The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders," —

were by them firmly believed as established truths.
I had myself read in Dallaway's Constantinople, of a
Turkish Gazetteer, published in that capital, which
he says contained an account of the West India
Islands, and asserted as a fact, that in one of these
were certain trees, which produced, as their fruit,
beautiful women, who, when perfectly ripe, dropped
from the branches, uttering a cry of " Yak ! yak ! "
— "come, and enjoy me;" and also that in some parts
of America there was a race of people who combined
in their single persons both sexes, — being a male be-
fore and a female behind, and being therefore capable
of becoming a father and a mother at the same time !
I questioned these Turks on this subject, and they
seemed to have no difficulty in believing it, nor the
slightest doubt of its truth. But when I told them
that there were portions of the earth where the sun
was six months above the horizon, and six months
below it, so that sunrise and sunset happened in such
regions only twice in the year, they were as indig-
nant as they were astonished, at what they deemed

1L 2

148 THEIR NOTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY.

SO blasphemous an assertion. " In that case," said
they, " how would it be possible for the Prophet's in-
junction to be observed? — he commanded all true
believers to fast from sunrise to sunset during the
fast of Ramadan, and in such a region this would be
impossible." The rotundity of the earth and its di-
urnal revolution appeared to be equally strange and
incredible ; and they were exceedingly diverted at
the idea of men standing with their heads downwards
at the antipodes, without falling into the sky ; the
notion of gravitation causing each to adhere to the
surface by the power of attraction in the centre of
the globe, being one which they could not comprehend
in the smallest degree. I had reason to believe,
however, from many observations that passed be-
tween them afterwards, that the fact of there being a
portion of the world unknown to Mohammed, and
where his injunction of fasting from sunrise to sunset
could not be carried into effect, went far to shake
their confidence in his infallibility ; and it convinced
me that Mohammedanism could never be more effec-
tually undermined than by the diffusion of scientific
knowledge, in which the Moslems are at present so
generally deficient.

I pass over many other incidents occurring in this
first voyage on the Nile, and shall merely add that on

FTRST SIGHT OF THE PYRAMIDS. 149

the fourth day after our leaving Rosetta, we passed
the apex of the Delta, where the stream divides into
two branches, one going northwestward to Rosetta,
and the other northeastward to Damietta, making the
two sides of the triangle, of which the sea-coast
running east and west is the base, that gives its
name to this insular portion of Egypt, from its re-
semblance to the Delta of the Greek alphabet. By
the Egyptians themselves the whole district below
Cairo is called Bahri, or the province near the sea, in
contradistinction from the Said, as all Egypt above
Cairo is named. On passing the apex of the Delta,
we first obtained sight of the pyramids of Gizeh, in
the western or Libyan desert, witli their outlines
clearly defined against a bright blue sky, and looking
much nearer from the transparency of the atmosphere
than they really were. It would be almost writing a
history to give utterance to the thousand associations
which these ancient, venerable, and stupendous mo-
numents of human labour awakened in my mind :
ages appeared to pass in review before me ; the vo-
lume of Time seemed re-opened to my perusal ; and
obscure as were its early pages, the permanence of
the characters in which these sepulchral piles were
traced, seemed to triumph over desolation and decay.
At length we approached the end of our voyage,

L 3

150 CAIRO — STRIKING PECULIARITIES AND

and came in sight of Cairo, on the left bank of the
Nile as you ascend, or to the east of the stream, while
the town of Gizeh on the west, and the beautiful little
Island of Rhoda, in which the ancient Nilometer is
placed, with its splendid rows of sycamores, fills the
centre of the stream. The city of Cairo itself, seated
at the foot of the Mokattem-hills ; its dome-topped
mosques and countless minarets ; the forests of lateen
masts crowded along the wharves of Boulac, the land-
ing place for the city ; the swelling Nile covering
whole islands and provinces with its abundant waters ;
the fleets of boats sailing through canals along the
rice grounds and fields in every direction, seeming to
be skimming the surface of the fields themselves, from
the verdure intercepting the view of the channels; the
towns and villages, that studded this variegated carpet
of nature ; the busy hum of commerce, which was al-
ready audible ; with the silent desolation of the desert
on one side, and a splendid and populous city on the
other, seated at the foot of imposing hills, and full of
life and motion ; the endless diversities of figures,
dresses, complexions, religions, manners, and even
languages, of the crowds who passed in review before
us, — all contributed to form a picture more resembling
the effect of fairy enchantment than reality. Neither
London nor Lisbon, the only two metropolitan cities

VARIETIES OF THE POPULATION. 151

that I had yet seen seated, like Cairo, on the banks
of a commercial river, and with each of which I was
familiar, have anything like this eastern capital.
Both on the Thames and the Tagus almost everything
is characteristic of the prevailing national taste and
manners ; but at this emporium of oriental opulence
on the Nile, the diversity is so endless, that it is im-
possible to point out any one style or character which
prevails above another ; and if I experienced strange
sensations on landing at Alexandria, I felt infinitely
more on my first approach to Cairo, to which even
Europeans have prefixed the epithet of '* Grand," and
which the Arabs dignify by the expressive though
bombastic title of " The Mother of the World."

After passing my first night at Cairo, in the house
of Mr. Aziz, the Armenian who filled the situation
of Vice-consul at that city, I repaired on the following
day to the residence of the Consul-general, Colonel
Missett, at Boulac, the most healthy and agreeable
locality, close by the river Nile, and presented the
letters of introduction which I brought with me from
Smyrna and Alexandria. Nothing could be more
courteous or hospitable than my reception. I was
requested to make the Residency, as it was called,
my home ; apartments were assigned to me, containing
every domestic convenience, indeed luxury ; and

L 4

152 CHARACTER OF THE CONSUL-GENERAL

the only drawback to my pleasure was the feeling
that so much enjoyment could only be temporary.

I must here give a brief description of the worthy
and estimable group of friends among whom I now
sojourned for awhile. Colonel Missett was a distin-
guished officer of the Enniskillen dragoons, and a
perfect specimen of an Irish gentleman ; courageous
and chivalrous to the last degree, — an ardent ad-
mirer of the fair sex, — a hon vivaiit of great refine-
ment,— as choice in his table and wines as in his
companions, — an admirable recounter of anecdotes of
military and diplomatic life, — an excellent singer of
after-dinner songs, one of his favourites being —

" I traversed Judah's barren sands,
At Beauty's altar to adore ;
But there the Turk had spoiled the land,
And Zion's daughters were no more ;"

and though, from paralysis of all his extremities, he
was quite unable to use either his legs or arms —
being wheeled to table in a chair, and his food cut up
for him by his valet — his trunk, heart, and head were
perfectly sound ; for though he lived freely or gene-
rously, he had excellent digestion, good sleep, and
his benevolence and high spirits were both constantly
overflowing. On the whole, I have never met, before

AND HIS SUITE AND PARTIES. 153

or since, a more fascinating man than Colonel Missett.
Forming part of his household was a merry and
light-hearted officer of dragoons from Piedmont,
Major Taberna, whose feats of arms and camp ad-
ventures formed endless materials for conversation ;
Mr. Thurburn, the colonel's secretary, a more quiet
but more intelligent and instructive companion, and
full of the gentlemanly qualities by which the colonel
himself was so much distinguished; and Captain
Molesworth, of some English regiment of dragoons,
who was on a mission to Egypt to procure horses for
the British cavalry. Nothing could surpass the
pleasure of our lives : our breakfasts were sump-
tuous,— our dinners perfectly Apician, composed and
prepared by the ex-chef-de-cuisine of the King of
Naples ; our morning rides, on the most tractable
Arabs, varied every day to different parts of the city
and its environs, were exhilarating from the delicious
nature of the climate and the novelty of the objects
seen ; and our evening parties, often graced with the
visits of European and Levantine ladies from Boulac
and Cairo, and sometimes terminated by a ball, in
which handsome Turkish women from the harems of
distinguished men came as visitors and spectators,
and allowed us to compare their beauty with that of
other visitors, were sometimes exhaustingly plea-

154 VISIT ALL OBJECTS OF INTEREST

surable, and made an interval of rest an agreeable
relief.

During this happy period, to which I look back as
to a dream, I visited, in company with parties formed
for the purpose, and under every possible advantage,
all the objects of interest or renown within the city
and its precincts; but I must content myself with
merely naming rather than describing them. 1. The
Pyramids, ascending to the summit of that of Clieops,
and penetrating into its dark interior ; the colossal
Sphynx close by ; and the Catacombs, where millions
of embalmed mummies still lie buried in their bitu-
minous envelopes and hieroglyphic-covered shrouds.
2. The Island of Rhoda; the Nilometer, and the
delightful gardens in its neighbourhood. 3. The
Citadel of Cairo ; its Hall of Joseph, and enor-
mously deep well ; with the splendid prospect of the
city and surrounding country from its ramparts.
4. The mosques, baths, and bazaars, in all their end-
less variety. 5. The tombs of the Mamelukes, on
the edge of the Desert. 6. Some of the more
splendid mansions of the wealthy Jews and Arme-
nians, the interiors of which bring back all the
pictures of the Arabian Nights' enchantments. 7.
The coffee-houses and story-tellers, who excite
laughter or tears alternately by their witty and

IN CAIRO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 155

pathetic narratives of Oriental adventure, war, love,
and their vicissitudes. 8. The Almehs, or professed
female dancers, some of whom are handsome ; but
whose style of exhibition is altogether too voluptuous
for European taste ; and many other less important
objects.

On my visit to the Citadel, I was accompanied by
Captain Light of the Royal Artillery, here on his
travels, of which he has published a narrative, and
who made a beautiful drawing of Cairo from the ram-
parts. I remember two anecdotes connected with
our visit there, which are perhaps worth recording as
illustrative of Oriental opinions : —

While the captain was making his drawing, a well-
dressed Arab merchant, accompanied by his servants
and pipe-bearer, accosted me, and asked " what the
officer was doing ? " I told him, he was making a
drawing of the city, as seen from hence. He inquired,
" For what purpose ? " I said, " Most probably to
refresh his own recollections of the view on his re-
turning home, and possibly also to gratify his friends,
or make it still more public." " But how," said the
merchant, " will he be able to delineate the crooked
and narrow streets, the bazaars, the mosques, the ca-
ravanserais, and other objects which can only be seen
imperfectly from a height like this ? " To which I

156 ANECDOTES OF ORIENTAL

replied that this might he accomplished by making a
ground plan of the citj ; and I showed him one of
London that I happened to have in a little pocket
case among my papers. " Oh ! " said he, " such a
thing as that can be done with very little trouble."
I asked him how ? and he answered thus : " When
you return to the British Residency, where you say,
you are staying, ask the head servant to show you
into the lumber room, where everything not imme-
diately wanted is generally stowed away, and where
large spiders are sure to be abundant. Get a table
placed near one of the inner corners of this room ; on
one side of the table place a large open bowl of good
black ink ; and on the other lay out flat the white
sheet of paper on which you wish to have your
ground plan ; then, with a house-broom, disturb the
nests of the spiders in the angles of the ceiling till a
dozen or so of them drop into the ink bowl, and get
thoroughly saturated with the fluid. By means of a
straw, or a spoon, help them in succession to get out,
place a small heap of sugar on the middle of the sheet
of paper; and then set the spiders in succession down
at different points of the edge, so that all shall wend
their way from different points of the extremities
towards the centre. In their progress, their hairy
legs and feelers will describe lines of every variety,

IDEAS AND MANNEKS. 157

strait and crookedj which will do to mark the streets ;
their heavy bodies will leave large lumps or blots of
ink, which will indicate the mosques and larger
buildings ; and the intervals of white which they
leave by not passing over them, will do for the cara-
vanserais, squares and open spaces. When this is
dried, and the sugar and spiders removed," he added,
" it will give any one as accurate an idea of the ground
plan of Cairo, as if all the pains imaginable were taken
to describe it." I could but smile at so ingenious a
device, which none but an Oriental imagination would
possibly have thought of; and the Arab thought me
no doubt very obstinate and impenetrable in not im-
mediately consenting to put it into practice.

The other anecdote was this, — Captain Light
accompanied me on another occasion into the heart
of one of the villages in Egypt, somewhat removed
from the banks of the Nile, and where probably no
persons in European costume had ever before been
seen, for it was quite out of the high road of travel
and traffic. As the captain was short-sighted, he
always wore spectacles ; and at his appearance we
observed, that instead of running away, which was
the usual course of the women especially, when
strange men appeared among them, they stood bolt
upright with their legs as close together as they

158 IGNORANCE OF VILLAGERS.

could put them ; and with both arms extended down-
wards, holding fast their garments as if afraid they
would fly upward. We did not at first comprehend
the meaning of this : but on inquiring we found that
some one in the village had once looked through an
English night glass or sea telescope, which reverses
the objects seen through it, or turns them upside
down ; and had proclaimed to the women that
the Frank had put on these spectacles for the ex-
press purpose of reversing their figures. Not sup-
posing the possibility, thei'efore, of such a reversal
as that of their being turned upside down could pos-
sibly happen without the inevitable consequence of
their clothes falling over their heads, and thus
exposing their bodies in a state of nudity, they did
their best to prevent this, by the attitude they as-
sumed, and the fast hold they took of their garments.
We had no means of undeceiving them from their
error ; for as the men were becoming vociferous, and
gathering in large and threatening numbers, we
thought it best to cut short our excursion, and re-
tired from the village without harm.

I should add that the state of European society
at Cairo at this period, with the exception of the
parties at the British Residency, was not such as
would offer many attractions for a permanent

SOCIETY IN CAIRO VERY MIXED. 159

residence. There were nianj clever and enterprising
men among them, no doubt, especially Mons. Asselan,
the Consul-general of France ; Signer Drovetti, the
Representative of Turin ; the brothers okti, Balso
Piedmontese, — all more or less learned and accom-
plished, and all engaged in the acquisition of Egyp-
tian antiquities ; but the number of political refu-
gees, absconding debtors, and persons of equivocal
character from almost every part of the Mediterra-
nean, while it furnished great variety of entertain-
ment in their miscellaneous assemblies, required
great caution in forming more intimate acquaintance
with them.

160

CHAP. X.

Offer to transport Ships across the Desert of Suez. — Mode of
operation and probable cost. — Proposition for my making an
expedition to India. — Proposal to open a Canal from the
Nile to the Red Sea. — Departure on a voyage to the Cata-
racts and Nubia. — Ruins of Memphis. — Pyramids of Saccara
and Dashour. — Journey through Faioum to the Lake Moeris
and Labyrinth. — Romantic design of gathering morning rose
dew, for transmission to England. — Ruins of Antinoe and
Hermopolis. — Contrast of styles.

Amidst all this round of pleasure through which I
had now passed, the main object of my visit to Cairo,
namely, to obtain some useful and productive em-
ployment, was never for a moment forgotten. But
the Pasha, Mohammed Ali, was at this period absent
on a campaign in Arabia; and communication with
him, through secretaries, interpreters, and officers of
state, was very slow and tedious. His chief confi-
dential agent left in Cairo was a very clever and
gentlemanly Armenian, named Boghos Yusefi*, who
had, it was said, more influence with the Pasha than
any man in his dominions ; and his influence was
fully secured on my behalf through my excellent
friend Colonel Missett.

niOrOSAL MADE TO THE PASHA. IGl

We learnt from Boghos Yuseff that the Pasha was
very desirous of having some fast ships in the Red
Sea, and that he had purchased two beautiful Ame-
rican brigs, then in the harbour of Alexandria, for the
purpose of arming them and sending them round the
Cape of Good Hope ; but being told that the East
India Company had supreme command of all the
Ocean eastward of that Cape, and would seize and
confiscate all vessels found in those seas without their
licence, he had been deterred from incurring this
risk. I therefore proposed to overcome this diffi-
culty by undertaking to transport both these vessels
across the Desert, and launch them safely in the Red
Sea at Suez, from which they might be equipped and
sent wherever the Pasha desired. I was asked to
accompany this proposal with some description of the
mode in which such an undertaking could be accom-
plished, and give an estimate of its probable cost,
which was accordingly done as follows : —

I proposed to bring the vessels round from Alex-
andria to Damietta, on which branch of the Nile
there is sufficient water for vessels drawing twelve
feet to sail all the way up to Boulac, — the landing
place of Cairo, — and this period of high Nile was
peculiarly favourable for such an operation. When
arrived thus far, I proposed to lighten them by

VOL. II. M

162 PROPOSAL TO CONVEY TWO BRIGS

taking out every thing that could be removed, even
to the masts ; and while thus drawing not more than
six feet with their empty hulls, have them hauled up
as high on the river's bank as could be done with
safety, supporting them in their upright position by
stanchions or shores, as vessels are sustained while
building on the stocks. As the waters of the Nile
would be daily receding, they would soon be left
high and dry ; and then I proposed to construct
under the bottoms of each, the ''cradle," as it is
called, in which ships are embedded at the time of
launching, for the purpose of keeping the hulls
steady. The next process would be to pass hawsers
from stem to stern round the whole of the hull, just
at the height of the bends, so as to keep the whole
framework compact, this "frapping," as it is techni-
cally called, being made as tight as possible. To
each hull there should be attached, by rings and
ropes passing round the whole of the hull, a hori-
zontal spar before the stem or cutwater, and within
four feet of the keel. To this spar might be yoked
four rows of camels, buffaloes, or horses, of twelve
or fifteen in each ; and by the aid of rollers, to be
placed beneath the keel, and replenished as required,
these animals would easily draw across the Desert,
from Cairo to Suez, the two brigs in question ; while

OVERLAND FROM CAIRO TO SUEZ. 163

their masts, rigging, and stores could follow on wag-
gons prepared for the purpose, and drawn by animals
in the same way. As the road from Cairo to Suez
is not soft sand, but a clay soil embedded with
gravel, and with scarcely any elevations or depres-
sions beyond a few feet, there would not be the
slightest difficulty in accomplishing the task ; and as
the Pasha could command the labour of as many
men, horses, buffaloes, and camels as he pleased, at
rates of pay which would barely cover subsistence,
the cost would not exceed lOOOZ. sterling for each
of the vessels so transported.

Colonel Missett and Yuseff Boghos were equally
pleased with the proposal and satisfied of its practica-
bility ; and advices were sent off to the Pasha to
learn his determination, but for which we^ should
have to wait some weeks, if not months, before we
could get an answer. In the mean time, I received
a letter from Mr. Peter Lee, the head of the mer-
cantile house at Alexandria, and British Consul
there, in answer to one I had written him about my
proceeding to India, which greatly revived my hopes,
and of which the following is an extract : —

" I may possibly have it in my power to give stability to
your views, gratify your curiosity, add to your stock of
useful information, and enable you to return liez'c. Your
M 2

164 LETTEli FROM MR. PETER LEE.

expenditure under my roof will not increase, nor shall we
remain idle. Mr. Schutz and myself have it in contem-
plation to establish a house of business at Cairo, prin-
cipally with a view to the India trade. We have to furnish
an intelligent gentleman at Bombay with our ideas, and
all the necessary information on the subject, and I con-
ceive that it may possibly be of some advantage to you to
be the bearer of our letter, as well as communicating per-
sonally what may be digested here. Such verbal com-
munications may be rendered much more ample than they
could be by letter, and your personal appearance as a
friend of ours, or a person attached to our establishment,
might be the means of insuring you the confidence of our
friend, whose object is to employ two or three ships con-
stantly from Bombay to Suez. I think a command of
one of them, connected with a supercargoship, could be
offered you ; — in short, I am persuadtid that you might
make yourself useful to such an establishment as we have
in view, in some way or another ; and I am myself very
desirous of contributing towards your settlement ; for a
man of your feeling and sentiment must not be a wan-
derer.

" Allow hope to cheer you, my dear Sir, and rely ujjon
my wishes and efforts to open a fairer prospect for you.
In order that all this may be combined, of course we
must have some long convex'sations together ; but as the
business is not very urgent, you need not hurry yourself.
It was not until after your departure that Mr. Schutz
and myself talked of this project. We both thought of
you. He has left me to combine and arrange, and I an-

COMMERCE BY WAY OF THE RED SEA. 165

ticipate that it may be done to mutual satisfaction. More
I need not say to you just now. Friendship has dictated
what I liave said. If I have inspired you with confi-
dence, I assure you tlie feeling is reciprocal."

No sooner had the idea of renewing the ancient
commerce between India and the Mediterranean hy
way of the Red Sea, taken possession of my mind,
tlian I began to think how much this would be facili-
tated by the juncture of the two seas by a navigable
Canal ; and I bent all my thoughts to this object. [
felt satisfied, from all I had read and considered on
the subject, that the work could be achieved, as well
in modern times as it had been in ancient. A
supplementary dispatch was therefore forwarded to
the Pasha in Arabia, in which I offered my services
to examine the wdiole track of the Isthmus of Suez,
for the purpose of ascertaining its present condition,
and reporting to him all the information I should be
able to gather on the subject ; being satisfied that no
work could be undertaken which would redound more
to his honour, or confer more benefit on his country,
than thus shortening the navigable route between the
Eastern and the Western world.

As I had now seen everything of interest in Cairo
and its environs, and as some considerable time would
elapse before we could receive replies to the propo-
Ji 3

166 EXPLORATORY EXPEDITION

sitions forwarded to the Paslia in Arabia, I expressed
a desire to employ the interval by making a voyage on
the Nile, from Cairo to the Cataracts, inspecting the
most remarkable monuments in the way, and then
descending to Keneh, cross over the Desert to Cosseir
on the Red Sea, and sailing from thence up to Suez,
by which I should have an opportunity of examining
that Arabian Gulf and ascertaining its chief hydro-
graphical peculiarities, preparatory to the renewed
conmierce contemplated by that route.

A Nile-boat of a lighter kind than the jerm,
called a kanjia, with a sufficient crew and ample
supply of provisions, was placed at my disposal. In
the service of the Pasha, by his agent, Boghos Yuseflf ;
and I was furnished not only with the Pasha's firman
or passport, but with a circular letter or order to each
of the local govei'nors on the whole of my proposed
route, to furnish me with whatever aid I might
require for the prosecution of my voyage. I was
accompanied by an Italian servant, Giovanni, who
had long resided in Egypt, and was in every respect
well qualified for the duties he had to perform.

We left Cairo on the 29th of October, the Nile
still high in its inundation, but beginning to be
stationary in its rise, just previous to the commence-
ment of its gradually subsiding, which occupies many

FEOM CAIRO TO SUEZ. 167

months before it reaches its lowest point in June.
The climate was delicious ; and I can conceive no
greater enjoyment than voyaging on such a river, with
a well-appointed boat and crew, every reach or bend
of the stream presenting objects of novelty and histo-
rical interest; varied by the changes of wind and calm,
of sailing, towing, excursions on foot or on horse-
back along the shore, and visits to some of the most
remarkable monuments of the world, returning
every evening to the boat as a home, with a vigorous
appetite, abundance of food of all kinds, and the de-
licious water of the Nile, which, when properly filtered
and cooled in the long-necked jars used for that
purpose, is the brightest, freshest, and most agree-
able water as a beverage perhaps in the world.

I had with me now, through the kindness of
Colonel Missett, an increase to my little library ; in-
cluding Shaw, Maillett, Niebuhr, and Bruce, with
the learned and able illustrations of the Geography
of Herodotus by Rennell, which, added to those
before named, furnished me with all the authorities
I could desire, and helped to fill up many agreeable
hours on board.

The first place at which I landed was on the site
of the ancient Memphis, the ruins of which are per-
haps more scanty, and the glories of which more

M 4

168 SITE OF THE ANCIEXT MEMPHIS.

completely obliterated than that of any other equally
celebrated city of ancient days — even Babylon, Ni-
neveh, and Carthage, desolate as they all are, having
more vestiges of their ancient grandeur remaining
than Memphis. Its very position, indeed, has been
matter of controversy among geographers ; but Ren-
nell has entirely settled that question ; and the tradi-
tion of the Arabs and the name of the village on its
site, called Menph and IMenouf, corroborate his con-
clusion. The only actual monument of its ancient
greatness Is a colossal granite statue, now lying pro-
strate in the sands, equal in size to the colossi of
Thebes, but much more mutilated; but of the temples
of Osiris, Vulcan, and Venus, of the Serapeum,
Hippodromes, Squares, and Circus, — its celebrated
White Castle, which formed the military fortress of the
Persians, — of these, as well as the sphynxes, obelisks,
and sacred groves of which the ancient historians
make mention, not a vestige now remains, though
the scattered debris of its former grandeur extends
over a space of more than five miles in length.

It is here that the valley of the Nile begins to
narrow itself, by the approach of the Libyan hills
on the one side, and wliat are called the Arabian
hills on the other ; and below this, to the northward,
the surface of Egypt widens by the spread of the

THE GREAT PYRAMIDS OF GIZEII. 169

Delta. This corresponds perfectly with the descrip-
tion given of this God of Rivers, by the chief priest
Achoreus, when entertaining Cajsar at the banquet
of Cleopatra in Alexandria, where he says, in the
version of Lucan : —

"Mountains and deserts Nature's hand provides.
To bank thy too luxurious river's tides ;
As in a vale thy current she restrains,
Nor suffers thee to spread the Libyan plains ;
At Memphis first free liberty she yields,
And lets thee loose to float the thirsty fields."

From lience tlie Great Pyramids of Gizeh are still
visible, standing as they do on that portion of the
rock in the sandy Desert, which was excavated for
the catacombs or mummy pits, and forming the great
Cemetery or Necropolis of Memphis itself. As we
sailed southward we passed, on the same side of the
Nile, the west or Libyan, the more numerous Py-
ramids of Saccara and Dashour, numbering in the
whole some thirty or forty, all of inferior altitude,
materials, and workmanship to the Great Pyramids of
Gizeh ; but each, no doubt, like their prototypes, the
sepulchre of some distinguished personage.

The present condition of the inhabitants of Egypt
is, liowever, greatly inferior, no doubt, to that of the
ancient possessors of this fertile territory ; for though

170 PRESENT CONDITION OF EGYPT.

it yields no less abundantly than ever, the rapacious
government and its subordinate officers exact so
heavy a tax on all the produce, that bare subsistence
is all that is left to those whose toil creates this
wealth. How different from the picture drawn of
Egypt under the Ptolemies, by Theocritus!

" Jove's favourites, Heaven protected at their birtii,
Held the bright sceptre o'er the subject earth,
While, rising from tiie rich prolific shower.
Wide plenty waved, and myriads blessed tlieir power.
Secure from ravages or slaughtering arms,
The rustic reaped the produce of his farms ;
Pastured his herds where Nile o'erflows the coast,
Nor feared the navies of tli' invading host."

As night approached, the captain insisted on moor-
ing the boat, though, as the sky was clear, the moon-
light bright, and no serious impediments existed to the
navigation of the stream, we might have proceeded
with safety ; but in the East nothing is done in a
hurry ; time is deemed of little value, and custom
is paramount above all reasoning. I therefore re-
signed myself to the order, and passed the hours till
niidnioht in entertaining conversation with the ve-
teran reis. Though he had lived upon the water
for nearly half a century, he had never descended
the Nile below Cairo, or even seen the sea; so that

COLLECT DEW-DROPS FROM ROSES. 171

m}^ accounts of the Ocean and its perils had all the
terror and all the charm of a romance for him ; and
he looked upon me with additional veneration for the
wonders I had described to him.

As we approached tliat part of Egypt which in-
cludes the province of Faioum, where the celebrated
Lake of Moei'is, the Labyrinth, and the Pyramids,
visited and described by Herodotus in his Euterpe,
are placed, I devoted a few days to an excursion
on horseback to this celebrated spot. We passed
through large tracts of land devoted exclusively to
the cultivation of roses, extending for miles, and pro-
ducing millions upon millions of this queen of flow-
ers, from which nearly all the rose-water, and otto
or oil of roses, used in and exparted from Egypt to
all parts of the world, is distilled. Let me confess
to a piece of romantic or sentimental folly as some
will deem it, or of affection as others may regard
it, which I began to practise here. I had with me
a sm^ill cut glass vase or bottle, procured at Cairo,
into which I began to collect the dew-drops from
roses every morning, wherever I found them, and
there are few gardens in Egypt without that flower,
intending to store them up, till the bottle was full,
as collected by my own hand from day to day, and
therefore the more worthy of being presented to my

172 FERTILITY OF THE

dear wife ; to wliom I ultimately sent them, round
the Cape of Good Hope, from India, with some appro-
priate verses, Avhich will be recorded in their proper
j)lace. I can only say, that after my morning's devo-
tions, this was one of the most agreeable occupations
of the day ; and I should have accounted it as a
severe misfortune if 1 had either broken or lost this
little treasure, which increased in worth and import-
ance, in my own estimation at least, every day.

The time of my excursion was sufficient to enable
me to see much of the memorable site of the ancient
Lake and its accessories ; and some fifty pages of my
Journal are filled with the result of my researches,
but there is neither time nor space to record them
here. I must content myself with transcribing one
solitary passage only.

" It is scarcely possible to describe in too glowing
colours the riches and fertility of the soil over which
we passed in the continuation of our route from
Hillahoun to Medineh Faioum. All around us
seemed one wide garden, crossed and intersected with
a thousand meandering rivulets (for such the small-
est of these serpentine canals appeared), realising the
expression of Moses, who speaks of Egypt as being
* watered like a garden of herbs,' and strewed with

VALLEY OF THE iSILE. 173

groves and fields, flocks and hamlets, and a teeming
population. The heart expands on witnessing such
delightful scenes ; and on recurring to the source of
all this indescribable fertility, one no longer wonders
at the veneration in which the ancients held the Nile,
' than whom,' says Plutarch, ' no god was ever more
solemnly worshipped ; ' and the grand annual festival
in favour of which, says Heliodorus, ' was the most
solemn of all those observed by the Egyptians, who
regarded their river as the rival of heaven, since,
without clouds or rain, he watered and fertilised the
land.' Its priests, too, are often expressly mentioned
by Herodotus ; and on comparing the Borysthenes
to the Danube, he says, ' In my opinion, this river is
more productive, not only of all the rivers of Scythia,
but than every other river in the world, except the
Egyptian Nile. The Nile, it must be confessed, (he
adds,) disdains all comparison.' — Melpomene, 53.
On beholding the treasures which its stream disperses,
we cannot but forgive, if not admire, a superstition
which seems to have originated in excess of gratitude,
and to recognise the truth of the picture drawn by
Virgil : —

" Here, where with seven-fuld horns, mysterious Nile,
Surrounds the skirts of Egypt's fruitful isle,

174 TEMPLE OF HEKMOrOLIS.

And where, in pomp, the sun-burnt people ride
On painted barges o'er the teeming tide ;
Which, pouring down from Ethiopian lands,
Makes green the soil with slime and black prolific
sands."

Returning to the boat, we continued our course on
the Nile, halting at Miniesh, a populous and flourish-
ing town on the western bank, and thence onward to
the ruins of Antinoe, on the eastern ; a city built by
the Roman Emperor Adrian, and so called after his
favourite, the beautiful Antinous, who was drowned
in the Nile. I passed a whole day amid these ruins,
which have all the grandeur of Roman times, the ar-
chitecture being chiefly Corinthian; and the number
of edifices, colonnades, and partially dilapidated pub-
lic structures that still remain, make up a scene of
great beauty, though in desolation.

On the following day I visited the first Egyptian
architectural monument to be seen on ascending the
Nile, namely, the portico of the Temple of Hermo-
polis. It was like passing from St. Paul's Cathedral
to Westminster Abbey ; the former well calculated to
excite admiration for its noble proportions and fine
architectural efl:ect, but the latter inspiring feelings of
awe and devotion, amid the " dim religious light" of
its coloured glass, lofty aisles, and fretted roof.

TEMPLE OF HERMOPOLIS. 175

A single paragraph from my Journal of that day
will express this more fully : —

" When I dismounted and approached its gigantic
columns, I know not whether their colossal size, their
rich invention, or their exquisite finish attracted my
regard most strongly ; but this I perfectly remember,
that — while lost amidst the commingled feelings which
the pillared portico of this massive pile inspired, re-
gretting the lost language of its inscriptive figures,
and admiring the happiest union of pure simplicity,
luxuriant ornament, and everlasting strength, — I
felt, beneath its awe-inspiring roof, a sensation of
humility and devotion, which Antinoe, with all its
beauties of the picturesque, or all the sadness of its
desolating ruins, had not the power to create."

176

CHAP. XL

Visit a caravan of slaves from the interior of Africa. — Stay amidst
the ruins of the hundred -gated Thebes. — First interview
with Mr. Burckliardt at Esne. — Reach Syene. — The frontiers
of Egypt and Nubia. — Proceed further, till rendered blind
by ophthalmia. — Return to Esne. — Letter of Mr. Burckliardt
and second meeting. — Halt at Keneh, for my desert journey
to Cosseir.

Ascending the Nile, we next passed Manfalout, a
still larger town than Minieh, and being one of the
military stations, remarkable for the general profli-
gacy of its inhabitants, when at length we reached
Siout, the capital of Upper Egypt, and the place at
which the slave caravans from the interior of Africa
make their first halt on the borders of the Nile. Such
a caravan had just arrived from Darfour, and I ac-
cordingly took the opportunity of visiting it. Nothing
could be more wretched than the condition of the
poor captives; some quite infants, others decrepit
from age, and a large number of the male youths
castrated to serve as eunuchs in the harems of the
Turks ; while the females were rigidly guarded, and

ASCENT OF THE NILE THEBES. 177

their chastity preserved by means Avhich were most
cruel, but cannot with propriety be described. I
visited also the extensive range of excavated Egyp-
tian tombs in the neighbouring mountains, forming
the sepulchres of the old Lycopolis, or City of the
Wolf; but all this must be passed over.

In the course of our farther ascent up the Nile, we
halted at Akmeen, or Panopolis, at Ptolemais, at El
Araba Medfoun, or the Buried City, the Abydos of
antiquity, where the sumptuous Temple of Osyman-
dyas was placed, the remains of which are among
the most remarkable in Egypt ; thence to Diosopolis
Parva, the beautiful Temple of Isis at Tentyra,
Coptos, and Apollinopolis Parva, till we approached
the hundred-gated Thebes, undoubtedly the most
splendid and wonderful city of the world, either in
ancient or modern times.

I remained here a month, and such a month I
never remember to have passed in all my existence.
There are some objects that defy description, partly
from their multifarious nature, and partly from the
want of terms in which to convey ideas, and this
is one of them. An entire year would be insufficient
to exhaust its investigation, and every day would
only increase one's wonder. No marvel, therefore,
that Dcnon should say, that as he gazed he doubted

VOL. II. N

178 ASCENT OF THE NILE — THEBES.

whether he was reallj awake, or whether it was all
a dream, and that he actually rubbed his eyes, and
pinched himself to see whether he was in a vision or
not. No wonder that Homer, who probably himself
saw its wonders, should describe it in such lofty terms
as Hecatompolis, the hundred-gated, and add : —

" Not all proud Thebes unrivalled walls contain,
The world's great Empress on th' Egyptian plain ;
That spreads her conquests o'er a thousand states,
And pours her heroes through a hundred gates ;
Two hundred horsemen, and two hundred cars.
From each wide portal issuing to the wars."

As far as our limited time would admit, I saw
and examined all : — the splendid Hall of Columns,
the most imposing array of architectural grandeur that
the mind can conceive, — the avenues of sphinxes, —
the towering obelisks, — the colossal statues, — the
Memnonium, — the Tombs of the Kings in the Valley of
Death ; — and though I have read almost every work
published on Egypt since then, and seen every draw-
ing or engraving of its antiquities, it still seems to
me now, as it did at the time, more like a vision of
another world than a scene in this. Indeed, if the
theory (I think of Bishop Berkely) be true, that the
true duration of time is not to be measured by the

ASCENT OF THE NILE. — ESNE. 179

hours and minutes of the clock, but by the number of
ideas that pass through the mind, and the number of
sensations that occupy the heart, I must say, that by
such a standard, I lived a year at least in Thebes, and
certainly thought and felt more within that period
than in any similar one before or since. i\Iy Manu-
script Journal of Thebes alone would fill a large
octavo volume.

I quitted Thebes with inexpressible regret; and
ascending the Nile, we made a short stay at Her-
monthes, and a longer halt at Esne, the ancient
Latopolis, the portico of whose beautiful temple is an
object of universal admiration. What interested me
still more than any antiquities here, however, was my
first meeting with Mr. Burckhardt, known in the East
under the name of Sheik Ibrahim, whose reputation
as an Eastern traveller preparing for a journey of
discovery in the interior of Africa had caused him to
be an object of general interest to all Europeans. Mr.
Burckhardt was staying here on the expectation of
some advices from Cairo, previous to his starting on
his Desert Journey to Abyssinia ; and hearing of the
arrival of a boat with an English traveller, he hastened
down to the river's bank, came on board, and intro-
duced himself, speaking excellent English. He was
dressed in the commonest garments, as an Arab

N 2

180 PLEASANT INTERVIEW WITH

peasant or small trader, with a blue cotton blouse,
covering a coarse shirt, loose white trousers, and
a common calico turban round his head ; he had
a full dark beard, was without stockings, wear-
ing only the slip-shod slippers of the country, and
looked so completely like an Arab of the north, — a
Syrian, having a fairer complexion and lighter eyes
than the Egyptians, — that few would have suspected
him to be a Swiss, as he really w^as, but have taken
him to be a native of Antioch or Aleppo, the dialect
of Arabic which he spoke being of that region also.
Colonel Missett, I learnt, had written him respecting
me in such terms as to make him very anxious to meet
with me. We spent the evening together at the house
of the Turkish Governor of Esne, with whom we
supped and were hospitably entertained, and agreed
to meet again on board my boat early in the morning.
As he was with us before sunrise — early rising
being universal in this country — we had our simple
breakfast of coffee and rice-pilau prepared, of A^hich
he partook ; and we were so intensely and mutually
interested in each other's conversation, that we con-
tinued together, seated in the boat in uninterrupted
talk till sunset, with scarcely an interval of pause
between ; for at our noon-day and sunset meals our
conversation still continued in unabated volubility.

MR. BURCKHARDT, THE TRAVELLER. 181

The truth is, that the meethig of two Europeans in
so remote a spot from their respective homes, makes
them friends and brothers at once ; and as each is
sure to have a large amount of sympathy, bottled up
as it were, for want of reciprocal exercise, it is sure
on such occasions to overflow ; while the history and
experience of each is so new to the other, that in the
frankness of unlimited confidence, each narrates the
leading incidents of his own life and adventures, and
both parties are mutually gratified. Mr. Burckhardt
gave me a full account of his residence at Basle, his
birthplace in Switzerland ; his early desire for
African travel ; his visit and detention at Paris ; his
subsequent sojourn in London, and engagement by
the African Association to undertake a journey of
exploration at their charge and on their account; his
preparation for the hardships of such an undertaking ;
submitting himself to intense degrees of heat, — sleep-
ing on the ground in the open air, and feeding on
what would be deemed the coarsest and most repulsive
substances as food. He described to me also his
journeys in Syria and Palestine, which were all
merely preparatory to his great African enterprise ;
his residence at Aleppo ; his researches in the Au-
ranites east of the river Jordan ; his visit to Petra,
then scarcely knovt^n, having been just previously

N 3

182 ASCENT OF THE NILE.

discovered by Mr. Setzen, a German travelling in
the service of tlie King of Saxony ; and his subse-
quent stay at Cairo, previous to his coming here.
His present intention was to go from hence to Dongola
and Darfour in the interior of Africa, thence through
Abyssinia to the Red Sea, and cross over to Mecca
to join the pilgrimage ; and we both indulged the
hope, that as I was also bound in that direction, we
might again meet at Jedda, or elsewhere. Mr.
Burckhardt was unexpectedly detained another day,
which we also passed together ; after which we
finally parted with mutual regret ; he to pursue his
weary and solitary journey by land, and I to complete
my voyage on the Nile.

On the following morning we sailed upward, and
made a short halt at Edfou, the Apollinopolis Magna
of the ancients, whose majestic temple is in a more
perfect state of preservation than any I had yet seen
— Tentyra, perhaps, alone excepted — and the colossal
proportions of which exceed everything in Egypt out
of Thebes. Our next halt was at Koum Ombos, the
Crocodilopolis of the ancients, where the river-god
was an object of worship, to whom temples were
erected, though odious to the Tenty rites, as we learn
from Juvenal ; there being sects and sectarian hatreds
under the most corrupt idolatries, as there are still.

FRONTIERS OF EGYPT AND NUBIA. 183

unfortunately, under the purer reign of the Gospel ;
the votaries of each consigning the heretics who do
not embrace their peculiar views to excommunication
and everlasting destruction ; and yet they hope for
mercy themselves, though they show none to others !

At length we reached Syene or Assouan, the situ-
ation of the Cataracts that terminate the limits of
Egypt southward, and form the frontier between it
and Nubia. Nothing can exceed the picturesque
beauty of the little island of Elephantine, which forms
nearly the centre of the group of dark granite rocks
that here cross the bed of the Nile at right angles ;
and being harder than the ordinary sandstone of the
mountain ridges, have not been so much worn by the
friction of the water, and consequently form the
barrier which here interrupts the stream. At high
Nile it is just possible to draw boats, when empty,
up against the rapids, but at any other period of the
year this is impossible, as the height of the fall over
the rocks increases in proportion to the subsiding of
the river, and at its lowest point it becomes a real
Cataract, insurmountable by navigation.

After exploring all the beauties of nature and art,
— and they are equally abundant in this delicious spot,
about six hundred miles south from the mouth of the
Nile in the Mediterranean Sea, — we crossed the line

N 4

184 AFFLICTED WITH OPHTHALMIA.

of the Tropic of Cancer, which nearly intersects the
Cataract, and where anciently it was said there was
a deep well, which at the summer solstice at noon re-
flected the image of the sun from its surface. We
proceeded southward still into Nubia, visiting the
temples of Daboat, Gartaasi, Taefa, where a second
cataract or rapid occurs, and beyond this Galabshee,
Garfeecy, and Dukke, — all then scarcely known to
Europeans, but each presenting details of architec-
ture, sculpture, and painting well worth inspecting.
All these temples are in a narrow part of the valley
of the Nile, with the merest strip of cultivation on
either bank, yielding a precarious subsistence to
tribes of Nubians scarcely removed from savages, by
their entire ignorance of even the most ordinary
rudiments of knowledge, or the commonest arts
of life.

It was my intention to have proceeded still farther
south, to Ibrahim and Ipsamboul ; but I was here
afflicted with ophthalmia, one of the scourges of Egypt,
which reduced me to a state of complete blindness
for fourteen days. During this period I lived en-
tirely upon rice and vegetable food, having no medi-
cine of any kind with me, and passed the entire day
in as much darkness as it was possible to make by
awnings and coverings on deck, bathing the eyes in

LETTER FROM MR. BURCKHARDT. 185

the water of the Nile, keeping them covered with
wet bandages as long as they remained cool, and then
changing them for fresh ones. These fourteen days
seemed almost as many weeks to me, without the
power of reading or writing, and with no one near
with whom any conversation of interest could be
maintained for half an hour in the day. At length,
however, by patience, low diet, and continued dark-
ness and moisture, the inflammation abated, and I
was enabled to resume my voyage.

Our descent was very rapid, as calms now pre-
vailed, and the current was in our favour ; nor did
we make any halt till we arrived at Esne, where I
stopped to inquire whether Mr. Burckhardt had left
on his journey ; and on landing at the river's bank,
the approach of our boat having been descried at a
distance, I found a messenger, who put the following
letter from that gentleman into my hands : —

"Esne, December 13. 1813.
" Mt dear Sm. — The regret I feel at being obliged
to leave Esne before your return, much outweighs the
pleasure I should else have experienced from being at
last enabled to put an end to my tedious stay in Upper
Egypt. But this is the unfortunate lot of travellers.
They must suddenly part with persons whose character
and acquirements have inspired them with the greatest

186 LETTER FROM MR. BURCKHARDT.

esteem, in order to mix for montlas with beings the shapes
of whose bodies alone entitle them to the name of human.
The hope of mutual remembrance is then the only conso-
lation ; and on my part, I beg you to rest assured, that
the memory of the two days you kindly granted me at
Esne shall never be obliterated from my mind and heart.
I am afraid the state of Nubia, after the late invasion of
the Osmanleys, has not been altogether propitious to your
pursuits. I had expected a note from you from Assouan,
but your Reis has not yet made his appearance.

" If you repair to Syria, have the goodness to remem-
ber me to Mr. Clia])oceau, the French doctor, and at
Aleppo, to my friends Messrs. Barker, Masseyk, Wiet,
and families. I should be much interested to receive
from you some details relative to your excui'sions in
Syria, and more particularly to those trans Jordanem-
I forgot to mention to you that there is a ruined city
called Om-el-Djemal, at the distance of about twenty-five
miles S. E. from Bosra, in the Hauran. I have not been
able to visit that spot, you may perhaps be more for-
tunate. I understood during my stay at Bosi'a, that
there are a great number of Greek inscriptions to be met
with at Om-el-Djemal. The Chief of the Druses of
Hauran, Shibely, can afford you the means to see that
place. "With the liveliest wishes for your welfare, and
the complete success of your projects,

" I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours truly,

" Ibrahim.
"P. S. — A letter addressed to Colonel Missett, will al-
ways reach me, at least for the two next years to come."

DESCEND THE NILE TO KENEII. 187

On inquiring when the writer had departed, the
messenger told me he had received the letter on the
preceding evening with orders to present it me on my
arrival, and that Ibrahim intended leaving Esn6 at
midnight. I immediatelv dispatched my servant to
his house ; and some fortunate obstacles having de-
layed his departure a few hours beyond the appointed
one, he was in the act of mounting his camel to re-
pair to the caravan rendezvous, without knowing of
our being here, or even expecting our return so soon.
He came instantly to the boat, and our joy at meet-
ing was as sincere as the regret we both appeared to
have felt at our former separation, nor could there
have been any doubt of its mutual sincerity.

Our present interview was shorter than the previ-
ous one, but not less marked by pleasure at meeting
and pain at separation ; after which I hastened on to
Keneh, this being the point from whence I intended
to commence my journey across the Desert to Cos-
seir, going from thence probably to Jedda, and then
examining hydrographically all the upper portion of
the Red Sea, for the purpose of ascertaining the best
course to be pursued in preparing for the safety of
the ships that might be employed in the restoration
of the commerce between India and the Mediterranean
by this anciently well-practised, but long-neglected
route.

188

CHAP. XII.

Descent of the Nile from Nubia, and the Cataracts. — Perilous
journey across the Desert to Cosseir. — Mysterious Indications
of the danger of the way. — Disorganisation and disorder of
the Turkish troops. — Mohammed All's expedition against the
Wahabees. — An Arabian maiden warrior, a second Joan of
Arc. — Departure from Ken eh with an Albanian soldier. —
Travelling by night to avoid observation. — Jackals and
Hyajnas encountered on the route. — Drunken companion,
— Robbed of our camels. — Other animals obtained with
difficulty. — Arrested by a party of Albanian mutineers. —
Stripped of everything, and left naked in the Desert. —
Dreadful suffering from wounds, hunger, and thirst. — Hos-
pitality of a "Good Samaritan" Bedouin. — Arrival at Cos-
seir.— New difficulties there. — Men blown from the cannon's
mouth for mutiny. — Return to Keneh without eflfecting my
object.

My perilous and disastrous journey across the Desert
from the Nile to the Red Sea forms so remarkable an
incident in my life, that it will require and deserve a
separate chapter for its record ; though I shall present
it in a greatly abridged form from the Original Jour-
nal in which it is transcribed, and which was written
while all the circumstances were fresh in my recollec-
tion in descending the Nile to Cairo, selecting such
portions as may be necessary, (certainly less than

PKEPARE TO CROSS THE DESERT TO COSSEIR. 189

half the original), in a sufficiently connected form to
make the narrative continuous and intelligible.

Dec. 23. On descending from Nubia and the Ca-
taracts of the Nile, we were favoured with a fine
breeze of wind from the south, and continuing under
sail all night, we reached Keneh, on the eastern bank
of the stream, at an early hour. My first duty was
that of visiting Raffaelli, the Coptic Secretary, to
whom I had been already indebted for very kind at-
tentions shown to us during my former stay at this
place in our passage up the Nile.

In desiring him to procure us camels for Cosseir,
for which place I proposed to depart in the evening,
I observed an air of mystery and reserve in his hesi-
tating reply, extremely different from the frankness
of his former behaviour ; and, ignorant as I was of
the cause, it was impossible not to interpret it un-
favourably. There were difliculties, he observed,
which perhaps could not be surmounted, and it would
be therefore prudent in me not to attempt the jour-
ney. The manner in which this was uttered increased
my anxiety to know them. Was the season unfavour-
able from the cold of the night dews? Were the roads
subject to the incursions of the Bedouins ? Or had the
flame of war or rebellion been kindled in the Desert ?
He was not at liberty to answer. I told him that it

190 MYSTERIOUS INDICATION OF

would be an act of kindness to explain, since I had
undertaken this voyage into Upper Egypt, for the
express purpose of visiting Cosseir, Jedda, Tor, and
Suez, and that if there was a possibility of my doing
it, I was still bent on its accomplishment. He said
nothing, but turning his hands round each other to
intimate "confusion," as I thought, and afterwards
stroking his beard, he fixed his eyes very steadfastly
on mine, and broke a silence of several minutes, by
asking me if I did not perceive that his beard was
white ? I answered, yes, but he made no rejoinder ;
and here at least for half an hour our conversation
ceased, leaving me in that unpleasant doubt which
mystery naturally creates.

After we had taken coffee, he desired me to walk
into the bazaars and public streets, to go through the
encampment in the neighbourhood, and thus to solve
the riddle he was forbidden to explain.

We were now in the public divan, an hour hence
he would grant me a private interview at his house ;
and if then I still persisted in performing the journey,
he would provide the animals for the purpose.

The adoption of his advice most certainly increased
my fears. The town everywhere presented a picture
widely differing from its aspect when we passed it on
our voyage to Assouan, though it was then a scene of

THE DANGER OF THE WAY. 191

much bustle from the dej^arture of Ibrahim Pasha
for Cosseir ; but it was now crowded with soldiers
who insulted us at every step ; my cap was twice
taken from my head, and my servant had his watch
transferred to the possession of a Mussulman who
took it from liis pocket under the pretence of seeing
the hour, and refused to return it again. Twice were
we drawn by force into coffee-houses on the plea of
our being surgeons, to examine cases of revolting
disease ; and when I prescribed advice only, without
being able to supply them with medicine, we were
paid our fees in abuse of the grossest kind. We had
had enough of the military discipline already in the
town, without seeking to push our observation further
in the camp ; and our humiliation was rendered the
more mortifying from its being perfectly without re-
dress, as there was not even a governor in the place :
all the officers had departed except the captains of the
separate companies assembled here, and while they
disputed for pre-eminence among themselves, they
countenanced the most insulting conduct of their
troops.

Both the Copt and myself were punctual in the
fulfilment of our engagement at his house ; and now
that we were uninterrupted and alone, he assured us
that nothing but the sense of duty which he owed to

192 ALT pasha's expedition against

his religion, could have induced him to risk the dis-
closure of what few knew, but which all who did,
were forbidden to mention, under the severest penal-
ties, perhaps the forfeiture of life itself; he could not,
however, with a quiet conscience see Christians en-
tering the very mouth of danger without giving them
a warning voice at least, particularly when that very
dano;er arose from the execrable enemies of the faith.
After he had received our pledge of secrecy, there-
fore, he ventured to explain himself, from which it ap-
peared that Mahommed Ali Pasha, having left Cairo,
had reached Jedda, after depositing the new cover-
ing upon the Prophet's tomb, in his passage through
Medina. In this march he had met with some oppo-
sition from the Wahabee Arabs of those parts,
among whom the flame of religious zeal had spread
so rapidly, that his entrance into Mecca was prevented
by the collection of a powerful force ; in consequence
of which he was obliged to shelter himself on the
sea- coast, in order to secure an open retreat, and
constant supplies from Egypt. Twelve Arab chiefs,
who divided between them the whole of the central
parts of Arabia, from the Ked Sea to the Persian
Gulf, had united to repel the invasion of the Turks ;
and there was an inspired female of their race — a
second Joan of Arc, and, like her, a reputed virgin

THE WAIIAABEE ARABS. 193

— to whom tlic defence of Derrya, one of their strong
cities, had been committed, and who, like her ilkis-
trioLis prototype, had ah'eady maintained the alleged
divinity of her mission by prodigies of valour. In
every battle it was said that the troops of the Pasha
were defeated and repulsed with great slaughter, and
that reinforcements flocked to the green standard of
the Wahaabees from far and near. The statements
given of the enemy were unquestionably magnified.
Messengers who had arrived from thence had re-
presented them as flies and locusts in their numbers,
and figuratively said that " the earth was blackened "
by their hosts. But Eastern computation can seldom
be depended upon ; for unaccustomed to tlie accurate
calculation of large numbers, they seldom exceed thou-
sands in their expressions, but substitute the stars of
heaven, the blades of grass, or the sands of the
Libyan plains. The lowest computation, however,
admitted their numbers to be immense, since all the
population were in arms, and it was become a personal
and a sanguinary, because a religious war ; the Arabs
stigmatising the Turks as heretics and adulterators
of the faith, whose whole pleasure is in the intoxi-
cation of their smoke, and who depart from every
precept of the Book.

The news of the unfortunate losses and critical

VOL, II. O

194 ALi tasha's expedition against

situation of the Pasha had reached the people in
office here, and all the resources of their tyrannical
government were called into exercise on the occasion.
The troops who had gone into Nubia to drive the
Mamlouks beyond Dongola were recalled ; all Egypt
was drained of her petty Kiamacans and village
commandants ; and even Cairo itself was left de-
fenceless to support this forlorn hope, while every
species of vessel, animal, and material, were impressed
into the service of the war. Hassan Pasha, the com-
mander of the Albanian troops, the rival and secret
enemy of Mahomined Ali, had also received orders to
join the army ; but his men refusing to leave Cairo,
it was expected that he would embrace so favourable
an opportunity as this offered of usurping the
sovereign power, and dethroning the absent Viceroy ;
while the Greeks in the pay of the latter had shown
strong disposition to mutiny, from several of their
troops having been beheaded by Ibrahim Pasha, his
son, because they Avould not embrace the Mahom-
medan faith previous to their embarkation. At
Cosseir five hundred soldiers were waiting conveyance
to Jedda, and destitute of almost every species of
provision, as well as water. At Keneh above a thou-
sand were encamped for the same destination, and
these refused to leave the banks of the Nile and the

THE WAHAABEE ARABS. 195

plenty it afforded tlicm, until boats were ready for
tlieir embarkation. The government were in arrears
of pay to their troops, the war was unpopular, and
the situation of those engaged in it desperate and
almost hopeless, so that dissatisfaction and disorder
reigned throughout every class of the military, and
rendered an association with them dangerous ; besides
which, the impossibility of finding any conveyance
across the Red Sea was certain, and therefore my
journey to its shores would be altogether useless.

This information was so disheartening, that before
we had quitted our host, I had abandoned the project
of my voyage, with the intention of returning at
once to Cairo, and really began to prepare for that
direction.

We retired to the boat after all this had been com-
pleted, and I lay upon my carpet for more than an
hour, in a state of great uncertainty and indecision.
The idea of returning to Alexandria without accom-
plishing the principal end for which I had undertaken
the voyage thus far (which was to cross the Desert
to Cosseir, and from thence examine the shores of
the Red Sea), was vexatious in the extreme ; and the
abandoning a well formed and deliberate expedition
without attempting to surmount whatever difficulties
might have presented themselves, would very justly
o 2

196 DEPARTURE FROM KENEH

subject nio to ridicule. On the other hand, the
reports which had been made to me, the facts which
I had myself witnessed, and the strong desire that I
felt to be again near friends, were almost irresistible
temptations to return ; all which was increased by
fatigue, and the state of my sight, still weak from an
ophthalmia which had left me in total blindness for
several weeks. But after a painful period of silent
counsel and self-communing, the pledge I had made
to undertake the journey appearing to me in the light
of a duty, determined me to make the attempt at least.

My determination was fixed, and I felt perfectly
reconciled to brave all that might befal me, until
another difficulty arose ; my servant refused to ac-
company me. In paying the Copt a third visit, and
telling him of my resolution, he replied, " The will
of God shall be fulfilled, and the camels provided."
But as neither threats, entreaties, nor rewards could
prevail on my Italian valet, Giovanni, to be the com-
panion of my voyage, I was determined to go alone,
rather than be diverted from my purpose. It was a
perseverance bordering perhaps upon obstinacy, but
I had often found that such a spirit was the only one
by which great difficulties could be overcome.

In this dilemma we luckily found an Albanian
soldier, who spoke a few words of Italian, and after

WITH AN ALBANIAN SOLDIEE. 197

an explanatory conversation with liim, I agreed to
pay the expenses of his journey and ten dollars for
the protection which his appearance would be likely
to afford me. Still preserving a retreat open in case
of my being obliged to return after all my exertions,
I retained my boat on the Nile, and leaving the prin-
cipal part of my baggage in her, proposed sending
her to Thebes under my servant's care, to prevent
her being seized for the service of the government.
After procuring an Albanian dress, I might then de-
part with my companion in the night, hoping to pass
as a soldier until I reached Cosseir, to which place
I should take a letter from RafiFaelli to a Coptic
friend of his, who would secure me in his house until
I should find whether any further measures were
practicable or not. In the event of my passing thus
without danger, and finding a conveyance either to
Jedda or Tor in Arabia, the Albanian had consented,
for another ten dollars, to be the messenger of my
wishes back to Keneh, to discharge my boat and
bring my servant and baggage across to me under
his care, — an arrangement to which all parties had
consented.

The hour of our departure was at hand, Giovanni
repaired to the boat with the clothes I had stripped
off in the tent, and after having been forced to

o 3

198 DErARTURE FROM KENEH.

pledge them in a copious draught (for the Christians
of Egypt are all drinkers of rakee or arrack), we
parted from our boisterous entertainers, and repaired
together to RafFaelli's house. He had not yet re-
tired to bed, so that after receiving his letter, written
in Arabic, we were unfortunately drawn in for a
parting cup of his favourite beverage again. When
we mounted our camels, therefore, if all the dangers
in the world had been drawn up in battle array against
us, the courage of my companion seemed quite suffi-
cient to meet it, and the spirits that had inspired it
a sufficient protection from the midnight air.

The owner of the camels was desirous of accom-
panying us ; but as this would increase our number,
without serving any beneficial purpose, and perhaps
render us more liable to discovery, he was content to
forego the journey, by my pajang a deposit of twenty
dollars for each animal, being their estimated value ;
and this was to be returned to me on my delivering
them back in safety, and on paying five dollars each
for the journey across.

In order to shorten our halts as much as possible,
to dispense with cooking, and to court every thing
which could tend to privacy, we had provided
only some dourra bread and a few dates, a portion
of beans for the beasts, and a leathern vessel of

TRAVELLING BY NIGHT. 199

water across each camel for the whole of the jovirney ;
neither intending to recruit at the fountains, nor stop
at the caravanserai at El Guittah, but to travel through
the niffht, and steal off behind some mountain, to

CD ^

sleep during the day, where we should most probably
be unobserved. All our prospects were fair, and our
hopes proportionably sanguine, so that we commenced
our journey with hearts as light as could be wished.

Dec. 24. Our route from Keneli lay for four or
five miles through a cultivated country, until we
entered the Desert, upon a hard sandy plain or valley,
lying between two ranges of mountains and forming
an excellent road, which, even at this hour of mid-
night, was thronged with asses, camels, and their
drivers ; some returning empty from Cosseir, and
others going thither laden with grain.

We made no stay at this village, but continued
our route until sunrise, by which time we had
reached about midway between Beerembar and El
Guittah, and turning off to the left entered a narrow
valley, which we pursued for upwards of a mile, and
rounded off at last to the eastward, where we ob-
tained shade and shelter, and were completely hidden
from the view of those who might be passing on the
great road.

Here wo alighted, fed our camels sparingly, took

o 4

200 APPREHENSION OF THE BEDOUINS.

some refreshment ourselves, and entered into arrange-
ments for our staj until evening. Violent headache,
lassitude, and weariness had succeeded to the late
hours of the tent : and the evaporation of the tem-
porary courage with wliich it had inspired my com-
panion, had left a dejection and melancholy of the
most gloomy kind. The soldier repented that he
had undertaken the task of being my conductor ; for,
if it should be discovered that he had been the col-
league of a Frank in disguise, it might possibly cost
him the forfeit of his head to the government ; or,
if spared from that, the buffettings and abuse of the
Mussulman troops ; and, I confess, there was some-
thing like regret, mixed with alarm, for the conse-
quences of the expedition in my own mind. We
were thus far safe, however, and it was idle to
tremble in anticipation.

Each of us were disposed to sleep, and both con-
sented that one only should partake of that indid-
genco while the other watched ; for we were not
entirely without apprehension from the Bedouins of
those parts, who were also dissatisfied with the Pasha,
in consequence of his withholding from them the
stipulated supplies of corn, by which he had pur-
chased their friendship; and it was said that the
numbers on the higli road was the only pledge for

JACKALS AND IIYiENAS. 201

tlie safety of travelling even there. We were thus
each deeply interested in observing the strictest vi-
gilance, but myself more particularly, and I there-
fore undertook to keep the first watch, while the
Albanian slept. The few hours passed in this soli-
tude and suspense may certainly be numbered among
the most painful of my remembrance. I was here,
alone, with an armed stranger, whose habits were cal-
culated to destroy every tie of honour, every bond of
confidence, and who, in the secresy of our seclusion
from every view, was in complete possession of my
person, without either the fear of detection or the
probability of punishment.

A number of timid jackals crossed the spot where
we lay, but ran from a simple waving of the hand ;
and we saw no less than six hyasnas in difierent di-
rections, probably attracted to the road by the pow-
erful odour of the dead animals with which it was
strewed. I remember to have seen, when a child,
two of these animals in a travelling menagerie,
which were called untameable, and taught by their
keepers the wildest and most ferocious attitudes ; so
that although I had heard of their flving from those
who face them, and of their being content with prey-
ing on defenceless herds and flocks, I could not divest
myself of the terror which early impressions had in-

202 IlYiENAS.

spired, when one of them approached us within a few
yards, and so close to our camels that these sprung
from their knees affrighted, and broke the grass
halter by which they were fastened to the rock. I
awoke my companion ; he was about to fire without
reflecting on the alarm which the report of arms
would occasion if heard, and I was fortunately in time
to stay his purpose ; but on chasing the animal with
sabres, he fled from us precipitately and relieved us
from our fears. The figure and general appearance
of those creatures is certainly calculated to inspire
dread, from the wildness of their stare, and the fero-
city of their whole look. This was of a greyish
colour, intermixed with dark streaks and spots, a
small wolfish head, shaggy hair, and about the size
of the largest Egyptian dogs that I had seen.

It was now past noon, and I lay down to rest in
my turn ; but I found it difficult to sleep, for caution
was my only hope ; it was technically, and truly too,
my sheet-anchor for the gale. During the first hour,
therefore, I lay with closed eyes, and partially
awake ; fatigue prevented my being completely so,
until I sunk into a sleep as sound as the greatest
safety could inspire, or the weariest could have
wished for.

What was my surprise, however, what my indig-

KOBBED OF OUK CAMELS. 203

nation too, on awaking, to find my companion drunk
and senseless on the ground, and the camels with all
our provisions gone, the cord of his sabre cut, and the
sword carried awaj, mine half drawn from the scab-
bard, his pistols taken from his belt, and both our
muskets disappeared. We had, in short, been pillaged
by some cautious thieves, who found us both asleep.
I endeavoured to rouse him by all possible means ; it
was in vain, and to render the affair still worse, in
shaking him on the ground, the bottle of spirits which
he had emptied, and which I recognised to be one
from the boat, probably given him by my servant,
broke into pieces under him, and cut his side severely.
Here, then, I was obliged to wait until this unhappy
subject recovered strength enough to stand on his
legs, and it was then a long while before I could ob-
tain from him anything like an intelligible answer.
He was like one awoke from a dream of death ; he
knew nothing of all that had transpired, and seemed
to think our punishment a warning from our patron
saints to return. I dared not tell him I had no con-
fidence in his calendar ; for then he would most cer-
tainly have deserted me, and I could not give up my
determination to proceed. We, therefore, left this
place at sunset, and by assisting to steady his pace

204 RIDE TO EL GUITTAH.

and prevent him from falling, wo struck off on foot
into the high road.

The sky was yet warm with the last glow of day,
the moon was young and rising, and closely followed
by the evening star, while the belt of Orion had just
begun to be visible in the East; but all this beauty of
the evening beamed no comfort on our unhappy des-
titution. On contrasting my present condition with
that of those by whom I knew I was dearly remem-
bered at home, and in whose society I had passed the
last Christmas -eve, of which this was the anniversary,
my spirits almost sunk beneath the pressure of the
moment, and no language can faithfully describe
the conflicting passions that possessed me. Despair,
however, is always an enemy, and most so when
surrounded by dangers ; as far, therefore, as it was
possible, I endeavoured to conquer its suggestions,
and steel my bosom against sensibility.

When we reached the road, we found it as thronged
as before, and procuring two asses, returning light to
Keneh, we mounted them, and rode on to the wells of
El Guittah. Here we slaked our own thirst, and
watered our animals, but without making any stay,
as there was a mosque and caravanserai at the place,
in which some Turks were sleeping, and which we
were therefore careful not to visit. A few dates oc-

OUR ANIMALS FAIL US. 205

casionally demanded from Arab camel drivers, avIio
have generally a small snpply wrapped either in their
shirt or girdle, furnished us with sufficient food; so
that neither hunger nor thirst had jet occasioned us
any material inconvenience.

Dec. 25. At length the morning advanced, and
with it our fears increased. We debated with great
earnestness upon the measures to be taken for the
day, when, after all I could virge, my companion
positively refused to spend another among the retire-
ment of the mountains ; so that we necessarily con-
tinued our route upon the high road.

When the day became warm, between sunrise and
noon, our animals began to droop ; we knew not how
long they had travelled before we had mounted them,
and were therefore apprehensive that they would fail
us altogether, an anticipation that was soon verified ;
for about two o'clock both of them were on the ground
without the hope of being raised again. Waitino- the
coming up of a loaded drove, we prevailed on the
driver to exchange our beasts for two of his own, by
a payment of three dollars for each, being about half
their value ; but desiring him, at the same time, to
enjoy his good fortune in secresy, since by leaving
the two disengaged corn- sacks on the road, and a boy
to watch the animals, they would soon be sufficiently

206 ARRESTED BY MUTINEERS.

recovered to overtake him at the next halt again.
Thus far all was well'; fortune had hitherto found a
remedy for every dilemma, and it inspired a hope
that these combinations would follow us throughout.

The sun was closing fast with the western line of
hills : we had travelled nearly twenty hours without
resting, having had neither food nor water since
leaving El Guittah, and as may well be imagined,
weary with fatigue, and harassed by continual ap-
prehension, yet still congratulating ourselves on the
propitious destiny that had attended us hitherto with-
out discovery. When near the wells of Moilah,
where the valley closes, and the path grows more
rocky and intricate, we met an Albanian officer on
horseback, with about twenty soldiers, returning in a
state of mutiny from Cosseir. Unfortunately there
was no avoiding them, and to turn back would have
been betraying our fears ; we therefore braved the
meeting, and rode on, but not without being stopped.
My Albanian companion preceded me, and a conver-
sation ensued between him and the soldiers, which I
did not understand, but I could distinguish from a
few expressions, as they spoke in Turkish, that he
represented himself to be on a journey to Cosseir
from his commander, and that he disavowed all know-
ledge of me whatever ! I still proceeded on, but was

STRIPPED OF EVERYTHING. 207

soon laid hold of. They demanded of me, in Arabic,
where I was going ? I answered, to Cosseir ; and
since it was now vain to dissemble, I produced the
firman of Mohammed Ali, the Paslia of Egypt, which
I had brought with me to provide against any moles-
tation. My treacherous companion still continued
on his route with quickened pace, and during my
detention for examination, he got completely out of
sight. The officer did not apparently understand the
purport of the firman, from his handing it about
among the soldiers to examine ; but on his seeing the
Pasha's signet, which he was better able to recoc:-
nise, he spit on it, tore the firman into fragments, and
scattered them on the ground. I trembled with ap-
prehension, and certainly expected to undergo the fate
of the dissevered document ; but this enraged chief
was satisfied with taking from me my sabre, which
pleased him, and giving his own, an inferior one, to
one of his followers. This was a signal for the rest, —
an example they did not hesitate to follow ; one seized
my pistols, and a quarrel ensued amongst them about
their possession ; another took my jacket, a third my
turban, and so on, until I was left by them entirely
naked on the plain, without a dollar in money, and
only the letter of Raffaelli to his friend, which I had
tied round my right arm in a small black silk bag as

V

208 LOSSES REGKETTED.

a talisman, a treasure wliich even robbers in the East
respect, as tliey are written only for the wearer, and
lose their virtue when transferred to another. In this
sacred enclosure I had placed two Venetian sequins,
a hint I had borrowed from my friend Sheikh Ibra-
him (Mr. Burckhardt) at Esne, and on these my only
hope remained. I regretted more than all, as it could
not be replaced in this country, the loss of a small
pocket sextant In a brass case, with extracts of all the
necessaiy tables, an artificial horizon, &c., admirably
adapted both for land and sea voyages, and which the
chief of these banditti had taken to himself, under the
persuasion of its being a magician's instrument, formed
of a metal favourable for the transmutation of all
others into gold.

Night advanced to favour me, and for the first
time within my remembrance the presence of the
moon was at enmity with my wishes. I wished to be
hidden from my own sight, if possible, and I felt in
its full force the scriptural expression of the sun
smiting by day and the cold by night. It was no
time, however, to give way to despondency ; so that, as
soon as my plunderers were out of sight and hearing,
I rose and proceeded, trembling at every approaching
step, till at length I met and accosted a Bedouin
Arab, who was passing with his burdened camels.

MEET A BEDOUIN ARAB. 209

and was answered surlily. The poor fellow was in
an ill liumoLir at his destiny, and it mioht well have
soured his temper. I made him understand, how-
ever, that I was a Frank, and an Englishman, and
confirmed it by showing him that my arms and body
were whiter than those he was accustomed to see ;
and this was the only proof I now possessed of
my being a stranger, since my head even had been
shaved, according to the custom of the country, and
my moustaches were long and bushy enough for a
sultan. After some conversation, he said he recol-
lected to have seen me at Keneh on the morning
before I left it, but the metamorphose of dress was
too great to enable him to recognise me again. I
made him feel the sequins in my talisman, however,
and his doubts were soon removed.

To return to Keneh in the despoiled plight in which
I now stood, naked as I was born, would be seeking
certain detection and all its unknown consequences.
Being, therefore, determined to pursue my route, I
prevailed on the Arab to give me his outer brown
shirt of goats' hair, rough and rugged, and placing it
over my body, for which no covering had been left
me, I concealed my head and face from observation
beneath the blue cotton cloth which these men throw
across their shoulders. I was, however, completely

VOL. II. p

210 SUFFERING FROM WOUNDS.

barefoot, and the want of shoes pressed harder upon
me than any other privation, as the small stones of
the road were broken flints. With a large staff to
support my steps, furnished by my new conductor, to
complete the costume of my new condition, I followed
the asses, as a driver, in pain and apprehension.

Dec. 26. The soles of my feet were so incessantly
pierced by the sharp fragments of flint that strewed
the road, to which the hardened skins of the Arabs
are invulnerable, and the incisions became so fllled
with dirt and sand, that before morning I had halted
twice in despair, and gave myself up as incapable of
finishing what I had undertaken. I possessed no
more money to buy an ass, without leaving myself
entirely destitute, and neither arms nor a military
dress to enforce the use of one. When we halted,
therefore, toward morning, amid a wild and rocky
country, in which detached masses of granite were
mingled with the calcareous mountains, I rolled my-
self in the goats' hair shirt, drawing my feet up from
sight, and was happy to find a momentary refuge
from despair, in that repose which is so sweet to the
weary.

But this delightful state of forgetfulness, this tran-
quil interval of oblivious insensibility, which Nature
grants to the most unhappy, was of short duration.

ARAB COMPASSION. 211

The sun had hardly risen before we were again stir-
ring, and after sharing the Arab's pipe of hospitality,
dividing with him about half a dozen dates, and eat-
ing some raw corn from the sacks of his cargo, we
were again about to proceed ; but my feet were now
infinitely more tender and swollen than when 1 lay
down, and when I placed them on the ground I
found it impossible to sustain the weight of my body.
The hope of reward, perhaps, but certainly a mixture
of compassion too, induced the Arab to risk even
punishment to befriend me. I lay down again, as if
asleep, dreading every sound, and fearing to be ac-
costed without being able to answer, when in half an
hour he returned with an unburdened beast and an
empty sack, giving me to understand that he had dis-
charged the corn in secret, and, hiding the sack also
in another quarter to prevent detection, he lifted me
on the animal, and we both set out together. It was
possible, he told me, that we might reach Cosseir
to-night, but it would be late, as it was yet twelve
hours' journey, and the cattle must make another
halt at Beder, which we should reach before sunset.
T conjured him, by all I could express, and by the
promise of remuneration, to enter it, if possible, in
the dark, that we might be unobserved. He promised
compliance, and we journeyed on with less fatigue, it

P 2

212 WELLS AT BEDER.

is true, but scarcely less pain than before. From the
raw corn that I had eaten to excess, in the intensity
of my hunger, I suffered great distension of the
stomach, with excruciating pain, and an apprehen-
sion of actual bursting; while I rode on a sharp-backed
and unsaddled beast, with only a rough brown hair
shirt on, and not even a pair of drawers to lessen the
poignancy of friction, so that I could only relieve
myself from this double inconvenience by perpetual
change of position.

Of the Canal which has been spoken of as once ex-
isting between Keneh and Cosseir, I did not perceive
the slightest trace through the whole of our journey :
nor would such a work be easily practicable, from the
nature of the country; at least it would be inevitably
attended with a labour and expense that its commer-
cial advantages would scarcely ever repay. At half
an hour after sunset we reached the wells at Beder,
where 1 assisted to unload the burdens of the asses,
the camels taking a short repose on their knees with-
out being lightened. Here, also, after drinking of
the water, which, bitter and brackish as it is, was
sweet to the thirsty, we laid ourselves down to take
an hour's sleep.

From hence we set out again, after loading the
sacks upon our little caravan, and, without even being

ARRIVAL AT COSSEIR. 213

accosted on the road, arrived in good health and
safety at Cosseir, about four hours after the setting
of the moon, which must have been past midnight.

Dec. 27. We had some difficulty in finding the
house of Signer Paulo (for such was the name of the
Copt's friend), and still greater in obtaining an en-
trance into it at this hour of the night. He spoke only
Arabic, and to all his questions I could only answer
that I was a Frank and an Englishman, that I came
from Keneh, and had brought from thence a letter to
him from his friend Raffaelli. He conversed with us
from out of the window, as every person in the house
was asleep on our arrival ; but after seeing my
wretclied appearance, and hearing the story of the
camel driver who had been my conductor, added to
the imperfect account which I could give him of
myself, he let down a string, to which I attached the
Arabic letter concealed in my talisman, after which
he descended to let us in, though it was still with a
great deal of justifiable caution and reserve.

On reading the letter, which was merely four lines,
written in Arabic, and stamped with the ring or signet
of the writer, he appeared satisfied. I had water
given me to wash, a green oil for my feet and pos-
teriors, as both were in a similar condition, and re-
turning the Arab his goats' hair shirt, with that

P 3

214 COPTIC HOSPITALITY.

of the Albanian into the bargain, I gave him the
sequins of my talisman for his pains. The poor
fellow, unaccustomed to the possession of gold, was
extravagant in his expressions of gratitude, began
kissing my hands and feet, and imploring Allah to
preserve me for a thousand years ; yet all this did
not prevent me from feeling that I was still his
debtor, and from regretting that my means of re-
warding him were so limited. He left us highly
satisfied, however, since lie saw that I had given him
all I possessed, and he promised to preserve inviolably
the secresy I had exacted of him ; after which, being
wrapped in a clean shirt and warm cloak, given me
by my host, I lay down on a straw mat, as they use
no other beds here, and was lulled to sleep by the
murmur of the breaking sea.

Being suffered to enjoy the indulgence I so much
needed, it was late before I arose, Avlien I found a
pipe, tobacco, purse, fire apparatus, &c., by my side,
with a Coptic dress and blue linen tiirban of Signor
Paulo's, ready for me to put on. It is in moments like
these, when feeling our dependence on the assistance
of our fellow beings, that we appreciate the true worth
of charity, and that we best understand the force and
beauty of that sublime injunction, " Do ye unto
others as ye would they should do unto you," It

NEW DIFFICULTIES. 215

is in such moments, in short, that one receives the
clearest and most explanatory comment on all tlie
admirable precepts of mutual assistance, and the reci-
procal duties of help and protection. For myself, I
can refer to no one period of my recollection in which
I so much needed the inspiration of Pentecost and the
gift of tongues, as at this moment, when I saw myself
surrounded with all the comforts I needed, supplied,
too, by the hands of a perfect stranger.

I might have travelled, perhaps, from one extreme
of Europe to the other, without finding myself so
much embarrassed for expression, without regretting
so sincerely that dispersion of mankind which had
placed such repulsive barriers between nations and
individuals as dissimilarity of language.

It was past noon when my kind entertainer re-
turned from his office of business, and it was not
until then that I explained to him my wish to find
a conveyance to Jedda, Tor, or Suez ; for in the pain
and fatigue which I suffered on ray arrival, this most
material communication had escaped me. In reply
he shook his head, and told me it was quite impos-
sible. Every boat, even of the smallest size, arriving
here from the northern ports, was immediately seized
for the use of the government ; those bound to Jedda
were laden as deeply as they could possibly bear,

p 4

216 STATE OF COSSEIR.

leaving scarcely room for the troops to lay themselves
along upon their cargoes ; so that if I continued to
remain here for a month longer, there would be no
prospect of m j finding a passage. This was the death-
blow to my hopes, for I had even until now con-
tinued to indulge them ; but seeing that my intended
voyage was perfectly impracticable, I relinquished all
further attempt to pursue it.

My friend added, that my return to Keneh could
not be too expeditious, since every resident here
trembled at the apprehension of rebellion ; that the
wells upon the road were nearly drained, while
there were no boats to procure supplies from Arabia,
in consequence of which, water of the worst kind sold
at a dollar per jar, or nearly a shilling per quart !
and scarcely any other provisions than bread could
be procured for money. Every arrival, he said,
brought news of fresh disasters in the Pledjaz, while
from there not being boats enough to convey the
soldiers, they were dissatisfied with their present pri-
vations, and many had gone back to enjoy the plenty
they were certain of finding on the banks of the Nile,
among which were the very party by whom I was
stripped in the Desert.

To all this he added that several boats had sunk
at sea, from their being too deeply laden, and their

PREPAEE TO LEAVE. 217

crew, with the troops on board, were consequently
drowned ; the news of which had very naturally de-
termined such of the expedition as found themselves
in safety on land, not to embark upon another ele-
ment without a better assurance of safety in their
passage across it.

My desire to part from a scene of so much danger
and so little attraction, was equal to the anxiety
which I had originally felt to visit it, and I should
have repented of the obstinacy which induced me to
persist in the task, in defiance of all warning and en-
treaty, had I not some pleasure in the consolation of
having seen the port, and of being personally con-
vinced, beyond the possibility of deception, that the
obstacles opposed to my wishes had not been magni-
fied. Our next consideration, therefore, was as to the
mode of retreat. I was now perfectly destitute, with-
out a shirt, or a piastre, that I could call my own, and
deeply as I was already indebted to the kindness of
my hospitable host, whatever step I took must make
me still more his debtor. My wants were, however,
anticipated before they could be expressed.

He asked me if my suffering state would allow me
to depart to-night ; and trembling as I was with ap-
prehension of the pains in reserve for me, I consented ;
when he promised to provide me asses and a guide.

218 RETURN TO KENEH.

advising us stiil to travel by night, and desiring nie
to retain the dress I now wore, which I conld either
return by my companion, or leave at Keneh.

I accordingly set out on my return ; and after a
painful and weary journey of three days and nights
regained once more the verdant banks of the Nile ;
and while taking the first draught of its delicious
stream, after the bitter and brackish water of the De-
sert, I could fully realise the feeling which is said to
haunt all Egyptians when absent from their home,
namely, an intense longing to drink once more the
water of the Nile, which has few equals, and no supe-
rior perliaps in the world.

219

CHAP. XIII.

Descent of the Nile from Keneh to Cairo. — Commission to
survey the Isthmus of Suez, and ascertain the practicability
of a Canal across it. — Leave Cairo in the costume and charac-
ter of a Bedouin Arab. — Companions of my journej', and
route pursued. — Rude hospitality of the inhabitants of the
Desert. —Aversion of both men and camels to enclosed build-
ings.— Halt at the castle of Adjerood for the night. — Arab
opinions of regular government and civilised life. — Arrive
at Suez, and favourable reception by the Governor. — De-
scription of the town, and nautical survey of the harbour. —
Entry of the great caravan of 4,000 camels from Cairo. —
Variety of races, complexions, characters, and costumes. —
Predicted dangers of our future Desert journey. — Moore's
Vision of Philosophy. — Sage of the Red Sea.

Our descent of the Nile from Keneh to Cairo was
rapid, and without interruption ; and I rejoiced to
find myself once more in the agreeable quarters and
delightful society of the British Residency, with Co-
lonel Missett and his suite, by whom I was most cor-
dially received. The contrast between my sufferings
and privations in the Desert, and the luxurious enjoy-
ment of this Sybaritic life, was as great as could pos-
sibly be imagined; though this, too, like all other
pleasures, Avas soon to have an end.

220 ANSWERS TO MY PROPOSITIONS.

During my absence In Upper Egypt, intelligence
had been received from Mohammed Ali in Arabia, in
reply to my propositions submitted to him through
Boghos Yuseff, and his answers were these. With
respect to the transport of the American brigs across
the Desert from tlie Nile to Suez, this was rendered
unnecessary, as he had been able to purchase some
vessels of war at Mocha and Jedda in the Red Sea,
belonging to the Arab governments of these two ports.
Regarding the survey of the Isthmus of Suez, for
the purpose of ascertaining the practicability of open-
ing a Canal between the Mediterranean or the Nile
and the Red Sea, he approved most heartily of
the design ; and commissioned Boghos Yuseff to pro-
vide me with all the necessary means for effecting
this without delay.

In deliberating with those most competent to give
advice on such a subject, it appeared that all ex-
perience showed, there were but two modes of jour-
neying safely in the Desert ; one was, to be attended
with a large escort, with tents, guards, horses, and
servants, which would be very costly, and provoke
attack and opposition, with perhaps plunder and mur-
der, if resistance were ineffectual ; the other was to
go as the poorer class of Arabs themselves do, with
one or two cumels only; and such an absence of all

SECOND DESERT JOURNEY. 221

superfluities in dress, provisions, and baggage, as to
satisfy all we met that we were too poor to be worth
the trouble of pillaging, and too insignificant to be
worth a ransom. I had been told this before by Mr.
Burckhardt, who adopted tlie latter mode, and found
it always the safest; and his opinion being confirmed
by the judgment of others, I resolved on adopting
this advice. As this second Desert Journey was full of
novelty and interest, and belongs strictly to what may
be called the Personal Narrative of my life, I trans-
cribe such portions of the record of it from my
Journal kept at the time, as will preserve the con-
nection between the parts, and make the whole in-
telligible.

Feb. 15. I had slept but little, from the diversity
of thoughts by which I was agitated during the night ;
and stirring with the earliest dawn we were dressed
and equipped before sunrise. After receiving a letter
of credit on Damietta, in case of our visiting that
place, as well as the firman of the Pasha, to be shown
only in case of need, we repaired to the okella, or
stables, where our camels and their driver lodged.
This individual, whose name was Phanoose (literally
a lantern, or a light for the path), was a Bedouin
Arab, from the mountains near Horeb and Sinai ; he
had been long known among the merchants of Egypt

222 DRESSES AND PROVISIONS.

for his tried fidelity, and was constantly entrusted by
them to be the bearer of large sums in gold and silver
between Sinai, Tor, Suez, and Cairo. He was thus
charged for a journey at present, and to his care and
protection I entirely committed myself. The great
caravan of four thousand camels had departed from
Cairo for Suez on the preceding evening ; and coin-
ciding with him in his opinion, that it was best to
avoid their track, and journey by the upper and least
frequented road, to the iiorthward of their course, we
left Cairo by the Bab-el-Nasr, or Gate of Victory, for
that route, about 9 o'clock.

Our dresses were those of the Arab fellahs, or
Egyptian peasants, consisting of a simple shirt of blue
cotton, over one of coarse calico next the skin, a coarse
muslin turban for the head, and a woollen sash for the
waist, with red slippers, and a blue cotton melyah, a
kind of shawl thrown loosely across the shoulders in
the day, and serving for a slight covering at night.
We had each long full beards, and wore sandals on
our feet. Our provisions consisted of a small supply
of bread, rice, butter, dates, a few hard boiled eggs
and salt, some coffee, tobacco, and a goat's skin of
water ; our cooking utensils comprised only an iron
kettle for boiling rice, and a small coflPee pot, with
two coffee cups. Our arms were a sabre, musket,

ROUTE PURSUED. 223

and pistols each, all of the most ordinar}' quality, to
prevent their exciting envy or a desire in others to
possess them ; and these, with a straw mat for sleeping
on, and a Bedouin cloak, or burnoose, for a night
covering, with the indispensable requisites of a pipe
and tobacco bag, completed our simple travelling
equipage.

Taking a course almost due east from the gate we
had left, we passed on through a narrow defile or
valley, formed by the near approach of two small yet
steep hills projecting against each other like bluff
capes in miniature, leaving the " Birket el Hadji,"
or the Lake of the Pilgrims, the general point of
rendezvous for caravans to the north of us. The
pace of our camels appeared to be light and easy ;
and as they bore only the few small sacks of money
confided to the care of the Bedouin, beside our own
baggage, their rate of progress was never less than
a league in the hour. The weather was favourable
for our journey ; and Phanoose occasionally broke
the silence of the Desert by the songs M'ith which he
cheered his camels, so that I felt my spirits growing
lighter with every step we took.

We halted for an hour about noon, and made a
hearty, though a hasty meal, when, overtaking a small
caravan of Arabs bound to Tor, we joined their

224 COMPANIONS OF MY JOURNEY.

humble camp, for mvitual protection, about two hours
before sunset. Our salutations at meeting were
rather Hke those of long absent friends than those of
perfect strangers, and their rude hospitality had in it
a sincerity which enhanced its worth. The camels
were unladen, and suffered to feed upon the few dry
herbs that were scattered among the sands, which, in
addition to their want of moisture, had the bitterest
taste that could be endured. The sacks of grain
which formed the lading of those bound to Tor
were ranged on each side of us, as a slielter from the
wind ; our arms were mustered and examined, and
we felt ourselves in a state of security.

As it grew dark, the camels were collected together,
and kneeling on the sand near us, their forelegs were
lashed in their bent position, which, rendering them
unable to rise, was the only precaution necessary
for their safety. A small quantity of gunpowder,
bruised in oil, was given to them in form of a bolus,
and a bag of beans tied to their mouths for their
evening meal. Hassan and SuUman were returned
with fuel for the night ; and Abdallah having, in the
short space of half an hour, ground sufficient wheat
for the party, mixed it, chaff and all, in the water of
their own skin, baked cakes of it on the fire of dung,
and made them, while warm, again into a paste, by

RUDE nosriTALiTY. 225

breaking tlicm in jiicces and kneading tliem in a
wooden bowl with oil and honey. Each of the party-
washed his hands in the sand before commencing liis
mealj as water is too precious in the desert to be so
used ; and all dipping their fingers in the same dish,
regaled themselves as at a feast of delicacies.

I could not refuse to join them, but it -was a painful
tribute to their hospitality ; and, keen as my appetite
had been at alighting, it was more than satisfied by
witnessing the preparation of our food, so that I was
compelled at last to plead fatigue, and afterwards to
sup unseen from my own stock ; feeling, in this
instance, the truth of Solomon's expression, that
" stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is
pleasant." We remained awake, and were engaged
in rude yet interesting festivity, until midnight,
having a large fire, and one of the party always on
the watch, so that we rolled ourselves in our cloaks,
and sunk to rest without apprehensions of evil.

Feb. 16. The shades of night had scarcely given
place to the earliest gleams of morning before we
were again stirring. Coffee and the hasty cakes of
yesterday were served with equal expedition, and an
hour before sunrise our little caravan was on the
march. The appearance of the country was every-

VOL. II. Q

226 EXCELLENT ROAD.

where the same ; dull, sandy plains, unbroken and
without variety ; a wide horizon almost like a sea,
and the elevation or depression of the road seldom
exceeding an angle of three degrees. In some few
parts, where the sand appeared more loose and deep,
were tufts of bitter herbs, and a sort of dry heath,
on which the camels fed as they passed along ; but
by far the greater part of the track was a firm,
gravelly soil, covered with white and yellow pebbles
of common flint, forming an excellent road, either for
wheel carriages, cavalry, or infantry, and even for
laden waggons, if necessary.

In the course of the afternoon we met several
small caravans, on their way from Suez to Cairo,
laden with charcoal from Sinai and Tor; and saw also
straggling parties of Bedouins on foot, their arms and
clothing as wretched as the imagination could possibly
paint them, one in each party carrying the water-skin
slung across his shoulders, and every one else appa-
rently bearing his own provisions.

After having passed a small building and a single
tree considerabl}^ on our left, lying nearly in the centime
road, and continuing our route easterly across the
same tiresome and unvarying scenery, we halted
about four o'clock in a sort of loose sand, it having
been pitched on for the convenience of our camels

HALT AT CASTLE OF ADJEROOD. 227

rather than ourselves^ as it afForded a few shrubs for
them to feed on, and soft ground for their knees.

The same duties as those of the preceding evening
were again gone through ; tlie dish of meal, oil, and
honej, was again served up ; but as I felt no more
reconciled to it than before, I joined in appearance
only, supping on the boiled rice which I had sepa-
rately prepared for ray own use.

Feb. 17. Our route to-day lay through a more
broken country, but neither hilly nor rocky ; the
ascents and descents were in general more sudden,
but there was still a tiresome want of variety ; nor
had the country yet changed its character of an
irregular sandy plain. About noon the high moun-
tains of Adaga interposed their blue bulk in the
south-east, and were interesting from mere contrast ;
dead camels were seen occasionally upon the sands,
and the bleached skeletons of those whose bones had
long been bared by the sun and wind were visible at
a distance of many miles, on the edge of the horizon.

It was not before the usual hour of the evening
halt that we gained sight of the castle of Adjerood,
a caravanserai, a short march from Suez, and it was
then some miles distant. I had already suffered so
much in my eyes, which were by no means recovered
from the effects of the ophthalmia when we left Cairo,

Q 2

228 ARAB OPINIONS OF

and tlie Lack part of my neck was also so blistered
hy exposure to the sun, that I was anxious to reach
some shelter for the night, especially as the wind had
risen very high, and annoyed us by the clouds of
sand with which it filled the air. I therefore de-
sired that we might continue our march until we
gained the caravanserai, where we might regale at
leisure, and sleep in comfort and security. Neither
of the Arabs urged the slightest objection to the pro-
longation of our march ; but all refused to enter the
walls of Adjerood, and preferred to sleep unsheltered
in the open air. This contempt of enclosed dwellings
had been deeply rooted in their minds by early im-
pressions, and was confirmed by habit, and to this
they added another reason — " Are you not now with
friends and honest men," said they, *^ with whom
you may trust your gold uncounted ? and will you
enter among thieves and robbers, where one eye must
be waking while the other sleeps?" It was impos-
sible to change their opinion of men in civilised life,
whom they characterised as treacherous and deceitful,
from the Sultan to the Fellah, or to persuade them
of there being many bright exceptions to the general
wickedness of mankind. " Mahommed Ali Pasha,"
said they, " is he not a robber of the highest class,
living on the plunder of the people (for so they con-

CIVILISED LIFE. 229

sidcr taxes of ovei'y description), and obliging them
to be dishonest, that they may be able to answer his
never-ceasing demands? And has he not carried
the war into Arabia, rather to gain the riches of the
Wahabees than to chanoe their religion?"

It was only in consideration, therefore, of my eyes
suffering from exposure to the night air, that my re-
quest was granted, and our conference on this subject
continued until we reached the walls themselves. It
was by that time past sunset, and as the evening was
cloudy, it had grown extremely dark, the gates of the
castle were shut, and not a voice was to be heard from
within. Phanoose, however, by loud knocking, brought
a porter to the wicket, whom, instead of entreating for
our admission as a favour, he loaded with many re-
proaches for closing his gate against the weary
stranger. " What is your castle built for ? " said he,
" to maintain a lazy governor and his train ? — or did
not Sultan Selim, and the holy Sheick, both found a
caravanserai, which you have converted into a fort ? "
The man replied as loudly and with equal warmth,
until the dispute grew so serious, that I was afraid at
last shelter would be absolutely refused us. Phanoose
entered, however, by force, unbarred the large gate,
and with great difficulty drew his camels after him,

Q 3

230 ARRIVE AT SUEZ.

the animals seeming to be as averse to enter enclosed
buildings as their master.

Phanoose, the Bedouin Arab, refused, however, to
remain in the castle himself among "thieves and ty-
rants," as he invariably called the Turks who occu-
pied it ; and though he left our camels within the
walls, he took his sacks of money with him, and joined
the camp of his companions on the outside, in the
open plain, for greater safety !

Feh. 18. We were roused before sunrise, and
taking our breakfast on the sands, without the walls,
loaded our little caravan and departed, taking leave of
the venerable old Moosa Abdallah, and the Bedouin
boys, who continued their route easterly, to pass
round the arm of the Red Sea above Suez, while we
branched oflf more southerly towards the town.

We reached Suez about ten o'clock, and alighted
at the okella of the Greeks, but finding there neither
accommodation for ourselves nor camels, we waited
immediately on Hassan Aga, the governor, to whom
I presented my letter from the Kiah Bey, the Pasha's
representative at Cairo. My reception -was extremely
favourable, and I was offered a seat beside him on the
same sofa ; an explanation as to the motive of my dis-
guise having removed the prejudicial impression cre-
ated by the appearance of my Bedouin dress.

RECEPTION BY THE GOVERNOR. 231

After an hour's conversation on the affairs of
Europe, the state of the war in Arabia, and other
topics of mutual inquiry, an officer was directed to
show me a room in an adjoining house, where I took
up my quarters for a short stay, and had reason to be
pleased with its situation, as it received the cool
breezes of the north-east, and overlooked the small
harbour for boats, abreast of the town. It was soon
furnished with our own mat and cooking utensils,
neither chairs nor tables being known here ; and the
luxuries of undressing and enjoying a clean change of
linen were of the highest kind.

After dining on a rice pilau at noon, I passed three
or four hours agreeably In rambling through the town;
and the evening was spent with the governor, whose
divan was filled with visitors of all classes, soldiers,
merchants, traders from Yemen, and Arabs from all
parts of the surrounding country. Even Phanoose
paid his respects to the governor in person, filled his
pipe, and was served with coffee by the men in wait-
ing; but he persisted in his motive being rather to
take care of me, than to gratify himself. Upon the
whole, Indeed, I had much reason to be pleased with
my reception and entertainment by the governor,
Hassan Aga, who was more polite and intelligent

Q 4

232 DESCRIPTION OF SUEZ.

than the generality of Turks in corresponding situ-
ations.

Feb. 19. As a station for transporting the mer-
chandise of the Red Sea to Cairo, and shipping off
supplies of grain from Egypt to Arabia, considering
the limited extent of the trade at tlie present moment,
Suez answers the purpose most effectually ; but as a
toion, scarcely any assemblage of houses, to which
that name is given, can be imagined less deserving it.
Situated on a point of land, faced by shallows towards
the sea, and having a wide desert behind it, not a tree,
a bush, or a blade of verdure, is anywhere to be seen.
It has been recently enclosed with miserable walls,
formed of stones loosely piled together, without ce-
ment, and having a range of loopholes for musketry ;
though one need only be within ten paces of them, to
be convinced that they would fall before the first dis-
charge of half a dozen field pieces. This wall sur-
rounds it on three sides, leaving it open towards the
north-east, where are the wharves for loading, and
the scala for the boat harbour. The whole circuit of
the town is, however, less than two British miles, its
greatest length being north-west and south-east, and
its shape irregular.

Feb. 20. Hassan Aga, the governor, had engaged
to take mc over the harbour, and on board the vessels

VISIT TO THE IIARBOUE. 233

in port, in his own boat, this morning ; but intelli-
gence reaching him of the arrival of the grand cara-
van from Cairo, which had set out the day before we
left that city, he was prevented from accompanying
me, and politely begged my acceptance of his boat
and eight men for the day. We left the wharf at an
early hour, and taking with me the Greek captain
and our attendant of yesterday, we stpered out into
the deep channel, the banks being dry at low water,
and the wind from the southward. We first visited
a ship of four hundred tons, and a brig of about three
hundred, the former ready to depart for Jedda, laden
with grain, brought across the Desert from Egypt ;
the latter recently arrived from thence in ballast.
Both of these were vessels belonging to the Pasha ;
they were nearly new, and had been built in the
yard at Suez, all the materials of wood, iron, hemp,
&c., being transported over the isthmus on the backs
of camels ; nor were they either in their construction
or equipment inferior to the ships of the Adriatic,
Each of them was armed with fourteen guns, manned
with a very motley crew of fifty men, and com-
manded by Greeks of the Archipelago, under Turk-
ish flags.

After obtainino; from their commanders all the
local information they could afford me, relative to

234 NAUTICAL SURVEY

the prevailing winds, weather, and navigation of the
Red Sea, we procured from them a hand lead and
line, and, with the chart and compass I possessed,
we proceeded to survey the harbour, and take the
soundings and bearings of the best anchorage berths.
It was a long and tedious duty, with so bad a
boat's crew ; but as the weathdr was extremely fa-
vourable, I succeeded in executing it much to my
own satisfaction ; and had the whole of the best an-
chorao;es marked with their accurate bearincrs, and
their depth In fathoms upon the chart.

As a port Suez is infinitely superior to Cosseir,
farther down the Red Sea ; the difficulty of ac-
cess to it from the southward, on account of the pre-
vailing northerly winds, may be considered as its
greatest, if not its only, disadvantage. When the
port is gained, however, the shelter from those winds
under the high land of Mount Adaga is secure ; the
depth of water, from two and a half to ten fathoms,
is convenient; and the holding ground, being firm
sand, is good. The prevalence of fine weather will
generally allow good anchorage to be deliberately
chosen ; and, for the same reason, berths may be
shifted at pleasure. The tides, having not more than
five or six feet rise and fall, are not violent in their
raie of ebb and flow, and are but little influenced by

OF THE IIARBOUK. 235

winds. The time of high water, at full and change,
is about twelve o'clock at noon, the new moon of
to-day affording me an opportunity of actual observa-
tion ; and, from the testimonies of others, those tides
are extremely regular in their courses and returns.

Vessels lightened of their cargoes, and laden boats,
pass from the outer harbour to the town, through the
deep channel, at all times of tide ; and for small boats
there is water through the shallow channel at about
a quarter jElood. Cargoes may be therefore shipped
and landed in the large barks of the country with
perfect safety ; the distance of the anchorage to the
wharves, being at least three miles, would render the
use of ships' boats unnecessary, unless to tow against
the wind or tide.

The want of docks at Suez, the necessity of having
every material either for building or repairs brought
by the caravans from Egypt, the difficulty of heaving
a vessel down, from the existence of a tide, and of
leaving her dry on the beach, from the insufficiency
of its rise and fall, are all seriovis obstacles to the
making it a naval arsenal, or to the giving ships even
a temporary refit in its harbour. Vessels trading
from India hence should therefore be invariably cop-
pered, and so complete in their equipments as to have
on board everything necessary for their own repairs;

236 ENTRY OF THE GRAND CARAVAN.

the simple articles of a needle or a skein of twine to
repair a bread bag, a bung for a water cask, or a
broom to sweep the decks with, being as difficult to
be found here as a mast, an anchor, or a cable.

Feb. 21. The entry into Suez of the grand cara-
van, which had commenced early on the morning of
yesterday, and promised not to finish in less than two
days more, had already filled tlie town with bustle and
variety. The arrival of two vessels from Jedda, and
one from Yambo, had also increased the number of
strangers, and by this mixture of visitors from Arabia
and Egypt, we had every shade of colour in coun-
tenance and costume.

My own Arab dress enabling me to mix in the
crowd without fear of being detected as a Christian,
or of even attracting notice at all, I was agreeably
occupied throughout the day in that sort of strolling
observation which makes even lounging both delight-
ful and instructive. The number of camels com-
posing this caravan exceeded four thousand, with at
least half that number of Bedouin guides. There was
also an escort of Turkish cavalry, and a company of
infantry, besides a number of traders, agents, &c.,
accompanying their own property, forming with the
arrivals by sea an additional population of five or six
thousand strangers. The goods brought by this cara-

DANGERS OF OUR DESERT JOURNEY, 237

van were cliiefly grain for Arabia, Egyptian cotton,
manufactured for sail cloth, timber, planks, and oars
for boats, of which several were ordered to be built
for the Pasha, and a few articles of private specula-
tion for the southern markets, such as gay-coloured
cloths, articles of dress, and common fire-arms.

Feb. 22. I had fixed our departure on my Desert
Journey, in search of the remains of the ancient Canal,
for this morning, but, as is usual on most occasions of
setting out, whether by land or water, new difficulties
arose, and obstacles were now for the first time sup-
posed to exist. The route I had marked out for our
line of investigation was to follow the track of
the ancient Canal, by the salt marshes to the north-
ward of Suez, pass by the spot marked in Arrow-
smith's chart as the ruins of Serapeum and Abouke-
chied, and entering the cultivated plain of Egypt at
the ancient Thaubastus, turn by Hieropolis to Balbeis.
Every one whom we consulted on the subject de-
clared this journey to be impracticable, without great
personal risk. This part of the Desert, it was said,
was traversed by the Syrian Bedouins, who are ene-
mies to those of Tor, and our being robbed and
stripped was a matter of certainty in the opinion of
Phanoose; but, as he observed, "Allah! Kereem!
God is merciful." The governor very kindly offered

238 MARINE SCENERY.

me an escort of his own soldiers, but I was too well
aware of its expense to accept it; aud as my desire
of accomplishing the journey was unconquerable, we
prepared to depart alone, hoping to find security in
the smallness of our party, and in the appearance of
poverty we should assume. Our guide at length re-
fused to depart without an additional sum of fifty
piastres for the journey, a demand which I strenu-
ously resisted, and as both parties Avere obstinate, it
bade fair to detain us for the day.

Noon came without a change of determination on
either side, and I passed the latter part of the day
most agreeably in a walk along the southern beach
of the town of Suez, from whence the marine scenery
is grand and interesting. On the right, the high and
rocky summits of Adaga are boldly picturesque, and
the plain leading to Tor and Sinai, wdiich is termi-
nated by a broken range of Asiatic mountains on the
left, with the unintercepted horizon of the sea in the
southern offing, form altogether a subject wortliy the
pencil of a Claude. The air was beautifully calm,
and the serenity of that unbroken silence which
everywhere reigned around, was like a momentary
slumber of animated nature. I was perfectly alone ;
and nothing could have been more favourable than
the present moment, either as it regarded the state

moore's vision of rniLOsorTiY. 239

of tilings, or of my own disposition to receive it,
for an interview with that hoary sage from whom
Cleombrotus learned the doctrine of a plurality of
Avorlds ; but I was not so highly favoured, though I
remembered here, with all that superior pleasure
which local interest can add even to the most beavi-
tiful productions, the poetic and ingenious fragment
of Moore's, which he calls "A Vision of Philosophy,"
the subject or hero of which he thus describes : —

" In Plutarch's Essay on the Decline of Oracles,
Cleombrotus, one of the interlocutors, describes an
extraordinary man whom he had met with, after long
research, upon the banks of the Red Sea. Once in
every year this supernatural personage appeared to
mortals, and conversed with them ; the rest of his
time he passed among the genii and the nymphs.
He spoke in a tone not far removed from singing ;
and whenever he opened his lips a fragrance filled
the place." What beauties, however, did those lines
derive from contrast, when I remembered them on
those barren sands :

" 'Twas on the Red Sea coast, at eve, we rnet
The venerable man ; a virgin bloom
Of softness mingled with the vigorous thought
That towered upon liis bi'ow ; as when we see

24:0 SUPPER AT THE GOVERNOR'S.

The gentle moon, and the full radiant sun
Shining in heaven together. When he spoke,
'Twas language sweetened into song — such holy

sounds
As oft the spirit of the good man hears.
Prelusive to the harmony of heaven,
When death is nigh ! and still, as he unclosed
His sacred lips, an odour all as bland
As ocean breezes gather from the flowers
That blossom in Elysium, breathed around!"

Returning from my evening walk, I supped at the
governor's^ and remained there late in a crowded
divan, a rich merchant from Jedda having paid his
personal respects to Hassan Aga. After evening
prayers, performed with all possible solemnity, these
bearded elders amused themselves in phiying tricks
upon an old Hadji or Pilgrim, whom the governor
retained among his dependants as a buffoon : among
a number of other devices, the loading his pipe with
gunpowder beneath the tobacco, so as to explode
while smoking, and placing fire in the small outer
cup in which they serve coffee, so as to burn his
fingers, and make him forego his hold^ were applauded
by loud bursts of laughter, which, from the contrast of
their general gravity, came from them with a very
borrowed grace indeed.

DEPARTURE FIXED. 241

Taking leave of this Turkish Aga, to whose kind-
ness I had been much indebted, I retired to rest, and
the differences with my guide Phanoose being ami-
cably adjusted, the next sunrise was fixed for our
departure on the Journey of Investigation already
adverted to.

VOL. II.

242

CHAP. XIV.

Journey in search of the ancient Canal. — Tradition of the
Israelites passing the Red Sea. — Places still called the Island
and Creek of the Jews. — No phenomena observed to account
for this event according to the ordinary course of natural
means. — Arrival at the bed of the ancient Canal. — Autho-
rities of Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus, and Pliny. — Exact
correspondence of the remains with these. — Cleopatra's Voy-
age on this Canal in her barge. — Dreadful Storm in the
Desert, and its effects. — D'Anville's, Rennell's, and Arrow-
smith's Maps. — Revival of the project for a new Canal. —
Railroads will now supersede its necessity.

My principal object In this extension of our Desert
Journey to the north of Suez, was to ascertain,
first, whether any vestiges still remained of the an-
cient Canal, uniting the Red Sea with the Medi-
terranean by way of the Nile ; and next, to determine
how far the same line as that traced by the ancient
authors for this Canal might be made available at
present ; or whether any improvement could be made
in it by deviating in any degree from its former
course. I continue therefore to extract from my
Journal of the Route the observations recorded
in notes on the way, and subsequently reduced to

THE ANCIENT CANAL. 243

writing at Alexandria within a few days after the
journey was ended.

Feh. 28. Our camels having drank their fill of
water on the preceding evening, our charges of
living having been paid, and every provision made
for our journey, we left Suez as early as the dawn,
passing round Kolzoum to the northward, leaving on
our right " Geziret--el-Yahoudi," or the Island of the
Jews, and travelling along the shore of " Hor-el-
Yahoudi," or the Creek of the Jews, at the termi-
nation of which we entered the bed of the ancient
Canal, which discharged itself into the head of the
Red Sea. Neither in the course of our route, how-
ever, nor here at its mouth, could we distinguish any
thing which could lead to a satisfactory decision as to
the remains of Arsinoe ; so that the idea I had enter-
tained on the summit of the Mount of Kolzoum was
rather confirmed than otherwise. While halting for
the purpose of examination, we found here a small
party of Arabs, four in number, who were returnino-
to Egypt through the tract of El Ouadi ; and as they
professed themselves perfectly acquainted with this
section of the Desert, we agreed to let them share our
coffee, tobacco, and protection, for their services as
guides, on condition that they were to make any de-

R 2

244 TRADITIONAL HISTORY.

viatioii from the common route which I might com-
mand.

For the first hour of our journeying in company
with these Arabs, we were entertained with the tra-
ditional history of the pursuit of Moses by Pharaoh,
of the miraculous escape of the fugitives, and the
complete destruction of the pursuing host. As their
knowledge of the subject was merely traditional,
neither of them being able to read, it was not to be
wondered at that they should differ in their relations
of this event ; but various as their accounts were,
each differed but little from that received among us.
They all agreed, however, in pointing out the scene
of this event at some miles north of Suez, observing,
tliat in those days the sea extended farther into the
Desert than it does at present.

I may add, that during all my journey along this
part of the coast, I could discover none of those na-
tural phenomena which many have supposed suffi-
cient to account for the passage of the Red Sea by
the Israelites, and the subsequent destruction of
Pharaoh's hosts by what are called natural means;
there being nothing in the configuration of the land,
or the flowing of the tides, or the prevalence of par-
ticular winds, that could produce the separation of
the waters, as described by the sacred historian ; so

BED OF THE ANCIENT CANAL. 245

that the integrity of its history stands unimpeached
by any circumstances visible on the spot, at all cal-
culated to take away from its miraculous character.

From the level of the sandy plain being slightly
below the surface of the Red Sea, the water flows
northward of Suez for some distance through the
bed of the ancient Canal, and the rains also finding
a reception in its hollow bed, without the power of
drawing it off, as the sands are firm, and in some
places even mixed with clay and gravel, the whole of
the channel appears as though but recently left dry.

Having the castle of Adjeroud considerably on
our left, we rode, for upwards of three hours, or
twelve miles, and at least four hours beyond Suez,
in the very bed of the ancient Canal itself, fol-
lowing it in all its curves, the general direction of
the whole being thus far northerly. It appears not
to have been lined with masonry, the embankments of
the soil originally thrown up still remaining. In some
parts, the channel has been so filled up as to leave the
limits of its width scarcely perceptible, while in others
it is now more than twenty feet in depth ; .nor does its
destruction appear to have been, as some have sup-
posed, from the shifting nature of the sands around
it ; for the whole of the ground through which it was
thus far cut is firm gravelly soil, mixed witli earth, a

E 3

246 CANAL FROM THE NILE TO THE RED SEA.

fine layer of which now covers the surface of tlie bed.
The uniformity of its breadth is admirable, scarcely
ever exceeding or falling short of a hundred feet.

That the communication between the Mediterra-
nean and the Red Sea had been attempted, by open-
ing a Canal from the Nile into the Red Sea, no one
had denied ; but its completion or actual discharge
into the latter had been a subject of question and
dispute, until the masterlj'' and profound dissertation
of Rennell seemed to have set the matter at rest ; and
the materials on which Arrowsmith's excellent chart
was formed removed even the possibility of doubt.
It was a high satisfaction to me, therefore, when tread-
ing on this disputed ground, to recapitulate the autho-
rities on which this historical fact was founded, and
to compare, as we went along, the features yet dis-
tinguishable, with the original descriptions scattered
through these early records. As they were among
the extracted memoranda, intended to assist my ob-
servations on this journey, I cannot do better than
recapitulate them here.

Herodotus (Euterpe, 158.) says, " Psammitichus had
a son, whose name was Necos, by whom he was suc-
ceeded in his authority. This prince first commenced
that Canal leading to the Red Sea, which Dai-ius, King
of Persia, afterwards continued. The length of this Canal

HERODOTUS AND STRABO. 247

is equal to a four days' voyage, and it is wide enough to
admit two ti'iremes abreast. The water enters it from
the Nile, a little above the city of Bubastis ; it termi-
nated in the Red Sea, not far from Patumus, an Arabian
town. They began to sink the Canal in that part of
Egypt which is neai*est to Arabia. Contiguous to it is a
mountain which stretches toward Memphis, and contains
quarries of stone. Commencing at the foot of this, it ex-
tends from east to west through a considerable track of
country, and where a mountain opens to the south it is
discharged into the Arabian Gulf. In the prosecution of
this work under Necos, no less than one hundred thou-
sand men perished. He at length desisted from his un-
dertaking, being admonished by an oracle that all his
labour would turn to the advantage of a barbarian."

Strabo (803. and 804.), says, "There is another
Canal, terminating at the Arabian Gulf, and the city of
Arsinoe, sometimes called Cleopatris. It passes through
those called the Bitter Lakes, whose waters indeed were
formerly bitter, but which have been sweetened since the
cutting of this Canal, by an admixture with those of the
Nile, and now abound with delicate fish, and are crowded
with water -fowl. This Canal was first made by Sesostris,
before the war of Troy. Some say that the son of Psam-
mitichus (Necho) just began the work and then died.
The first Darius carried on the undertaking, but desisted
from finishing it, on a false opinion that, as the Red Sea
is higher than Egypt, the cutting of the isthmus between
them would necessarily lay that country under water.
The Ptolemies disproved this error, and by means of

B 4

248 DIODORUS AND PLINY.

weirs, or locks, rendered the Canal navigable to the sea,
without obstruction or inconvenience. Near to Arsinoe
stand the cities Heroum and Cleopatris, the latter of
which is on that recess of the Arabian Gulf which pene-
trates into Egypt. Here are harbours, and dwellings, and
several canals, with lakes adjacent to them. The Canal
leading to the Eed Sea begins at Phaccusa, to which the
Philon is contiguous."

Diodorus (lib. i. c. 3.) says, " From Pelusium to the
Arabian Gulf a Canal was opened. Necho, son of Pt^am-
mitichus, first began the work ; after him Darius, the
Persian, carried it on, but left it unfinished, being told
that if he cut through the isthmus, Egypt would be laid
under water ; for that the Red Sea lay higher than
Egypt. The last attempt was made by Ptolemy the
Second, who succeeded, by means of a new canal with
sluices, which were opened and shut as convenience re-
quii-ed. The Canal opened by Ptolemy was called after
his name, and fell into the Red Sea at Arsinoe."

Pliny (lib. 6. cap. 20.) says, " Sesostris, King of
Egypt, was the first that planned the scheme of uniting
the Red Sea with the Nile by a navigable Canal of sixty-
two miles, which is the space that intervenes between
them. In this he was followed by Darius, King of
Persia, and also by Ptolemy of Egypt, the second of that
name, who made a Canal of one hundred feet wide by
thirty in depth, continuing it thirty-seven and a half
miles to the Bitter Fountains. At this point the work
was then interrupted ; for it was found that the Red Sea
lay higher than the land of Egypt by three cubits, and a

CLEOPATRA'S VOYAGE. 249

general inundation was feared. But some will Lave
it, that the true cause was, that if the sea was let into
the Nile, the water of it, of which alone the inhabitants
drink, would be spoiled."

The breadth and depth of the bed through which
we had travelled this morning corresponded exactly
with the dimensions given by Pliny, as one hundred
feet hy thirty, allowing for the deposits which must
have taken place in those parts the least filled up by
time ; because, as I before observed, it everywhere
preserved that breadth, with admirable regularity,
and was in many places more than twenty feet in
depth at the present moment.

In the Life of Mark Antony, mention is made of
this excursion of Cleopatra, from Alexandria to Ar-
sinoii, or as some called it, Cleopatris. She undertook
the voyage by the Canal, but on arriving at the
Shallow Lakes, called the Bitter Lakes, and some-
times the Bitter Fountains, through part of which
the Canal ran, it was found that, from neglect, the
sands had been permitted to accumulate, and the
splendid barges and galleys, constituting the fleet of
the queen and her retinue, grounded ; but the rowers
and steersmen being ordered to lighten them, for the
purpose of floating them farther on, they applied their
strength no longer to the oars, but actually drew

250 LAST TRACES OF THE CANAL.

them across the sands, till the Canal became suffi-
ciently deep to receive and float them onward on its
bosom to the city of their destination.

To resume the Journal of our Route. After having
travelled all the morning in the bed of the ancient
Canal, but without being able to discover a vestige of
anything like masonry, or indication of the sluices by
which its waters were said to have been regulated,
we had lost at noon all traces of its course ; though
we continued our direction still northerly, inclining
two or three points to the west, until we gained the
site of the Bitter Lakes, as they were called by the
ancients, and named the Salt Marshes in more modern
maps. We traversed the Desert here in every direc-
tion, for a diameter of ten miles, having fleet trotting
dromedaries beneath us, without finding the least
portion of water, although it had evidently been the
receptacle of an extensive lake, and has its bed at this
moment below the level of the sea at Suez. The soil
here differs from all around it. On leaving the last
traces of the Canal, we had entered upon a loose shift-
ing sand ; here we found a firm clay mixed with
gravel, and, though perfectly dry, its surface was en-
crusted over with a strong salt.

The morning was delightful, on our setting out,
and promised us a fine day ; but the light air from the

DREADFUL STORM. 251

south had increased to a gale. The sun became ob-
scure; and getting every hour into a looser sand,
it flew around us in such whirlwinds, with the sudden
gusts that blew, that it was impossible to proceed.
We halted, therefore, for an hour, and sheltered
ourselves under the lee of our camels, who were
themselves so terrified as to need fastening hy the
knees, and uttered in their meanings but a melan-
choly symphony.

I know not whether it was the novelty of the situ-
ation, that gave it additional horror, or whether the
habit of magnifying evils to which we are unaccus-
tomed, had increased its effect ; but certain it is, that
fifty gales of wind at sea appeared to me more easy
to be encountered than one among those sands. It is
impossible to imagine desolation more complete. We
could neither see the earth, nor sun, nor sky. The
plain, at ten paces distant, was absolutely impercep-
tible ; our animals, as well as ourselves, were so co-
vered with the sand as to render breathing difficult.
They hid their faces in the ground, and we could
only uncover our own for a moment, to behold this
chaos of midday darkness, and wait impatiently for
its abatement. Alexander's journey to the temple of
Jupiter Amnion, and the destruction of the Persian
armies of Cambyses in the Libyan desert, rose to my

252 DREADFUL STORM.

recollection with new impressions made by the horror
of the scene before me ; while Addison's admirable
lines, which I also remembered with peculiar force on
this occasion, seemed to possess as much truth as
beauty : —

"Lo! where our wide Numidian wastes extend,
Sudden the impetuous hurricanes descend ;
Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play,
Tear up the sands, and sweep whole plains away :
The helpless traveller, with wild surprise,
Sees the dry Desert all around him rise.
And smother'd in the dusty whirlwind dies ! "

The few hours we remained in this situation were
passed in unbroken silence. Every one was occupied
in his own reflections, as if the reign of terror forbade
communication.

The fury of the desert gale spent itself, like the
storms of ocean, in sudden lulls and squalls, but it
was not until the third or fourth interval that our
fears were sufficiently conquered to enable us to ad-
dress each other ; nor shall I soon lose the recollection
of the impressive manner in which that was done.
** Allah kereem ! — God is merciful!" exclaimed the
poor Bedouin, although habit had familiarised him
with these resistless blasts. *' Allah kereem ! " re-
peated the Egyptians, with terrified solemnity ; and

JOURNEY RESUMED. 253

both my servant and myself, as if by instinct, joined
in the general exclamation. The bold imagery of the
Eastern poets, describing the Deity as avenging in his
anger, and terrible in his wrath, riding upon the
wings of the whirlwind, and breathing his fury in
the storm, must have been inspired by scenes like
these.

It was now past sunset, and neither of us had yet
broken our fast for the day. Even the consoling pipe
could not be lighted in the hurricane, and it was in
vain to think of remaining in our present station,
while the hope of finding some bush for shelter re-
mained. We remounted our camels, therefore, and
departed. The young moon afforded us only a faint
light, and all traces of the common road were com-
pletely obliterated. The stars were not even visible
through so disturbed an atmosphere, and my compass
was our only guide. The Arabs knew a spot, near
Sheikh Amedid, where banks and trees were to be
found ; and confiding in my direction for the course
thither, we resumed our journey.

After a silent ride of five tedious hours, this garden
of repose appeared in sight, and bleak and barren as
in reality it was, fatigue and apprehension gave it
the charms of Eden, Here we alighted, fed our
weary animals, and, like sailors escaped from ship-

254 QUESTION AS TO POSITION

wreck, rejoiced in that delightful consciousnjess of
security, which is known only in the safety that
succeeds to danger.

It was a source of high gratification to me thus to
have completed a journey, undertaken for the express
purpose of examining the remains of a Canal, whose
very existence had been disputed by some, and its
completion doubted by others, notwithstanding the
positive testimony of the historians already quoted,
more particularly of Herodotus, — with whose de-
scription of its course out of the Nile from west to
east, and then turning off southerly toward the Red
Sea, — its breadth sufficient to admit two triremes
abreast, — and its being so circuitous as to make its
length equal to a four days' voyage, — its remains so
accurately correspond, as to stamp a high character
for veracity on the writings of that Father of History.

The question as to the position of the head of the
Canal, or the exact point from which it led off from
the Nile, can only be discussed by a comparison of
the different authorities on which it rests, and argu-
ments founded on the bearings, distances, &c., of
places mentioned in them, — a task which has been so
satisfactorily performed by the able pen of Rennell as
to leave nothing to be added to it. The Canal of
Trajan, as described by Ptolemy to lead through the

OF THE HEAD OF THE CANAL. 255

Egyptian Babylon, or Fostat, may, as d'Anville and
Eennell suppose, be recognised in that which, after
watering the city of Cairo, discharges itself into the
Birket-el-Hadji, or Lake of the Pilgrims ; and the
Canal of Amrou may have been that now traceable
in a portion of a bed which runs to the northward of
Heliopolis : but since the cultivation of the soil here
has obliterated all traces of the work of Necos which
Darius continued, as far at least as to the edge of the
Desert, one can only say that the vicinity of its last
vestiges, and their inclining line of direction to Bu-
bastis, give every reason to believe that Herodotus
and DIodorus were extremely accurate, the one in
making the water to enter the Canal from the Nile
near Bubastis, the other from the Pelusian branch of
that great stream.

Two powerful reasons no doubt led the ancient
Egyptians to make the Canal run from the eastern
branch of the Nile, instead of from the Mediterranean
into the Red Sea. The first was the difference of
elevation in the levels, the Red Sea being several
feet higher than the Mediterranean, and the water
in the former subject to a rise and fall of six
feet by the ebb and flood tide, which does not exist
In the latter ; an inequality which would have caused
a constant flow of current from south to north, and

256 PROJECT FOR A NEW CANAL.

would have required many locks to regulate. The
second reason probably was to have a more complete
command over the Canal, and prevent its being
used by the ships or galleys of other nations without
their permission. Both these objects were admirably
secured by the Canal going from Bubastis on the
Nile, some fifty or sixty miles higher up than its em-
bouchure in the Mediterranean, by which means
an equal level was preserved between the waters of
the Nile and those of the Red Sea ; and by com-
pelling all ships that used the Canal to pass through
Egypt itself on their way, the -Government could
restrict its advantages within whatever limits they
pleased.

I believe, therefore, that the best mode of uniting
the two seas would still be by a Canal running in the
exact line or bed of the ancient one, as more easy of
excavation, being all within firm ground, while the
tract to the north of it is covered with loose shifting
sands : and by deepening the river on the Damietta
branch to admit vessels of moderate draft of water,
the passage from sea to sea in the same ship could be
easily effected.

While this sheet is going through the press, I learn
by the public journals that the present ruler of Egypt,
Said Pasha, has granted to a French gentleman.

RAILROAD TREPERABLE TO CANAL. 257

M. Lessepps, tlie privilege of opening a Canal
between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea; that
its estimated cost is 6,000,000/. sterling, and that the
whole of this capital is to be raised from shareholders
in Europe. From the lai'ge amount of the cost, it
may be presumed that the intention is to run the line
direct from sea to sea, which will have all the dis-
advantages that the old Canal, from the Nile to the
Suez, avoided. But independently of this difhculty,
I believe the season has passed by for such an enter-
prise to be undertaken ; as a Railroad could be con-
structed from Cairo to Suez for one sixth of the
amount which is estimated for the cost of a Canal ;
the distance being only about sixty miles, in a straight
line ; the ground generally firm, formed of clay em-
bedded with gravel, and scarcely any loose sand be-
yond a few inches on the surface ; while there would
be no landowners to pay for going through their
estates ; no law or parliamentary proceedings to
obtain an act or charter of incorporation ; and labour
and subsistence to be had at a cheaper rate than any
country in Europe. For light goods and passengers
the expense and delay of transhipment would not be
greater than the canal dues and passage of vessels
from one sea to the other ; so that if this route to the

VOL. II. S

258 EAILROAD PREFERABLE TO CANAL.

East is to be shortened and cheapened at the same
time, a Railroad from Cairo to Suez would be the
preferable mode of effecting it. I should observe,
that no Railroads existed even in England or any
other country at the time of my proposing to re-open
the ancient Canal (1814), — or I should then have
given it the preference. The same reasons would
lead me to believe that the junction of the Atlantic
and Pacific would be more easily effected by a Rail-
road than by a navigable Canal ; — the expense of
which would be too great, and the prospect of profit
from it too uncertain and too remote for any mer-
cantile Company to undertake it.

259

CHAR XV.

Journey through the Land of Goshen, the portion of the
Israelites. — Pelusium, Menzaleh, and the Zoan of Scripture.
— Works of the Hebrew captives still seen there. — Arrival
at Damietta, the chief port of the Nile. — Cross the whole of
the Delta, from east to west. — Visit the ruined sites of
Busiris, Thaubastis, and Sais. — Arrival at Alexandria, and
reception there. — Wreck of a ship from Malta, off Cape
Bourolos. — Captain Berrington, a traveller for the interior
of Africa. — Excursions on the Nile and in the Delta. — Kind-
ness of the Orientals to the brute creation. — Fire and docility
of the Arab horse. — Description of this by Job. — Anecdote
of an Arab merchant and voracious pigeons. — Arrival of a
Scottish traveller and his Prussian companion. — Accompany
Mr. Maxwell and Captain Bramsen to Cairo.

The remainder of our journey from the edge of the
Desert was through the cultivated portion of the
Land of Goshen, the territory assigned to the
Israehtes by Pharaoh, in the course of which we
visited the site of the ancient Pelusium, on the
easternmost branch of the Nile, the Lake Men-
zaleh, and Janis, the Zoan of the Scriptures, where
the brick-works of the children of Israel are still
seen ; thence to Damietta, a much larger town than
Rosetta, the second indeed in Egypt, where we re-

260 EXCUKSIONS ON THE NILE,

mained some days ; and from thence proceeded to
cross the whole of the Delta, visiting the sites of
Busirisj Thaubastis, Sais, and many other remark-
able places ; and going thence to Alexandria, where I
again found an agreeable home in the house of the
British Consul, Mr. Lee.

During my stay here a ship from Malta was
wrecked on Cape Bourolos, the southern point of the
Delta, and all her cargo scattered on the waves.
Captain Berrington, of the Royal Engineers, who
came a passenger by her, with leave of absence to un-
dertake a journey into Africa, lost all his instru-
ments, papers, and books, and was obliged to relin-
quish his undertaking, though full of intelligence and
zeal, and highly qualified for his task, as far as I
could judge from some days' intercourse with him.
This gentleman was so injured and dispirited that he
was obliged to return to Malta, where he soon after-
wards died in the Lazaretto or Quarantine Ground of
that island.

I remained at Alexandria during the whole of the
spring and summer of 1814, waiting for the Pasha's
return from his tedious campaign against the Walia-
bees, as nothing could be decided on till then. I
employed the interval in improving my knowledge of
Arabic, in drawing up my Report on the Isthmus

AND IN THE DELTA. 261

of Suez and the proposed Canal, and in reducing to
the narrative form the notes and memoranda I had
made each day on the spot during my voyage into
Upper Egypt, and my journey across the Delta, in
which I visited many spots never before seen by any
European, or at least by any traveller who has given
the result of his labours to the world.

In this interval also I made several excursions on
the Nile, to portions of the Delta and Lower Egypt ;
and thus became more and more familiar with the
country, its language, and the manners and customs
of its inhabitants, some traits of which deserve men-
tion. One very remarkable feature of the Oriental
character is the kindness manifested towards the
brute creation, compared with the cruelty exercised
on them too frequently by Europeans. In their
treatment of the horse, for instance, nothing can
exceed the gentle and even fond caresses with which
the riders pet their animals, neither the whip nor the
spur being ever required or used; the result of which
is, that these creatures, though full of the fire and
animation of the war-horse as described by Job (xxxix.
19.), — "whose neck is clothed with thunder, and
the glory of whose nostrils is terrible ; who mocketh
at fear, and swalloweth the ground with fierceness ;
who smelleth the battle afar ofi^, the tliunder of the

s 3

262 KINDNESS OF THE ORIENTALS

captains, and the shouting," — is as docile as a lamb,
and repays its keeper's kindness with grateful sub-
mission to all his wishes, so that a gentle word is
sufficient either to put it on its mettle, or to stop it
in mid career. Boys of eight and nine years of age
mount the desert horses without saddle or bridle,
and go off at a full gallop, holding only the mane ;
and if perchance the youth should lose his seat and
fall, the animal immediately stops, caresses the fallen
rider by licking him with his tongue, and raising its
head in the air, neighs as loudly as possible to call
some one to his assistance.

But the most remarkable illustration of this kind-
ness to the lower orders of created beings that I re-
member was this. On one occasion I was descending
the Nile in a large undecked boat, called a jerm, which
was deeply laden with wheat in bulk from Upper
Egypt, going to Alexandria for a market. As neither
Turks nor Arabs use fowling pieces, and are unable
to comprehend the pleasure felt by European tra-
vellers in killing birds for sport, there is no destruc-
tion of any of the feathered tribes through these
means ; and they accordingly multiply prodigiously.
This is especially the case with pigeons, of which I
have seen flocks containing perhaps a million of se-
parate birds, extending for more than a mile in length

TO THE BRUTE CREATION. 263

and breadth, and flying so thickly as to obscure the
light of the sun like a heavy thunder- cloud. In seed-
time, these flocks will frequently alight behind the
sower, and eat up perhaps half the grain he has scat-
tered on the earth ; but the fertility of Egypt is so
excessive, with their double and triple harvests in the
year, that this deduction is not heeded, and the flocks
revel unmolested in their enjoyment of the banquet
thus spread before them. At night they repair to the
numerous towers or pigeon- houses in the villages,
each of which contains accommodations for several
hundreds at a time.

On the present occasion, as the jerm was slowly
descending the Nile by the force of the current only,
there came off from every village that we passed, a
large flock of pigeons, and alighted on the grain, as
it was heaped up open in the centre of the boat.
Successive groups of these at last so entirely covered
the whole surface of the wheat, that not a grain could
be seen ; and the first layer was soon succeeded by
a second, and then by a third. It was amusing to see
the struggles made by each of these in turn ; the
under layer, having eaten their fill, were anxious to
escape, and take their flight ; the upper layer, being
voraciously hungry, were as eager to get at the grain
below, and stretched their necks out, and dived their

S 4

264 ANECDOTE OF AN ARAB MERCHANT

bills downward for tins purpose ; while the centre
layer seemed likely to be crushed between the two.
All this while the reis, or captain of the boat, sat
near the helm, smoking his pipe with the utmost com-
posure, and looking complacently on the scene. At
length I could not forbear asking him, to whom all this
grain belonged, conceiving it to be a cargo on freight
for some corn-merchants, and thinking the captain a
very indifferent guardian of their interests. To this
question he replied, " Belongs ? — it all belongs to
me." I asked him, whether he did not view with
some regret the immense consumption of it going on
before his eyes ; as, if it proceeded at this rate, full
half of it would be consumed by the pigeons before
he reached Alexandria, and his loss would be very
considerable. He then begun to question me in his
turn ; and asked me first, " Do you not think that
God, who made the pigeons as well as man, intended
them also to be fed?" I could not but say " Cer-
tainly." " Is not," he continued, " grain tlieir natural
food ? " I confessed it was. " Can they," said he,
" plough, and sow, and reap, as we can, to obtain it ? "
I was compelled to answer "No." "Then was it
not clearly the intention of the Creator, that they
should take it wherever they could find it?" To
this even I could offer no dissent '' Why then,"

AND VORACIOUS PIGEONS. 265

said lie, " let them eat their full, and be satisfied. The
earth is the Lord's, and the abundance thereof, and
he meant that all his creatures should be partakers of
his bounty." I said, I could not but admire his be-
lief and his practice ; but I thought no Christian
corn-merchants would act upon this Mohammedan
view of the case, but would protect, as they would
call it, their property from loss. " Then," said he
*' they would act unwisely ; for God never suffers
man to lose by discharging his duty to any of his
creatures : He administers the affairs of the world
with more wisdom and justice than this." I asked,
whether such a diminution in the store of grain before
us would not inevitably involve loss ? " In quantity,"
he replied, " undoubtedly, for the lialf can never be
equal to the whole ; but not in value, for this is the
course of commerce. If all the boats laden with grain
arrive at -Alexandria without any diminution of their
cargoes, there will be a glut in the market, and the
price will fall. If, on the contrary, nearly half of
each cargo should be consumed before it reaches the
port, there will be a short supply, and prices will
rise: so that in all probability I shall get just as much
money at high prices for my half cargo as I should
have done at low prices for the whole ; and thus you
perceive, God does not permit me to be a loser by my

266 ARKIVAL OF A SCOTTISH TRAVELLER.

kindness to his creatures, for I shall be fully remu-
nerated, and the pigeons will have had their bellies
full into the bargain." Here then was a sagacious
man, who, though he had never heard the names of
Adam Smith, Say, Ricardo, Mill, or Maculloch, un-
derstood as much of the science of political economy
as relates to supply and demand as these great
masters ; and with this superiority over them, that he
regarded the just distribution of the produce of the
earth for enjoyment, as of even greater value than
the increase of production for national or individual
wealth or aggrandisement.

In August there arrived at Alexandria a travelling
party of Europeans, consisting of the eldest son of Sir
John Maxwell, Bart., of Pollok, just then of age, and
his travelling companion, Mr. Bramsen, an officer of
the Prussian army, a great linguist and a very accom-
plished man, with their suite. I met with them at
Damanhaour on my way to Cairo, and we performed
the rest of the journey very agreeably together. Their
stay at Cairo was very short, as they pursued their
way to Palestine and Syria, while I remained with
Colonel Missett at Boulac, to arrange an appointment
for an interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha, who had
by this time returned.

267

CHAR XVI.

First interview witb Mohammed All Pasha. — Suggestions
ofTered to him for improving Egypt. — Education of Egyptian
youths in Europe and America. — Employment of these as
Teachers among his people. — Increase of Knowledge would
bring increased Wealth. — Improvement required in the
quality of Egyptian Cotton. — This certain to attract British
merchants and capital. — Intercourse with Europe thus
made profitable. — Eesults of the adoption of these sugges-
tions.— Re-opening of the Canal between the Nile and
Red Sea. — Reasons assigned by the Pasha for deferring this.
— His views of English policy from their past history. —
Commission for me to purchase ships for him in India,
and encourage the merchants there to trade with Egypt.

On the appointed day I was presented to the Pasha,
in a private audience, by Boghos Yuseff; and His
Highness being informed that I spoke Arabic suffi-
ciently well to dispense with an interpreter, his
secretaries and attendants were dismissed, as lie
wished our conversation to be strictly confidential;
and therefore none but his Armenian agent and
myself remained in his presence. Of the Pasha's
appearance and character I shall here say nothing, as
that has been rendered fLimiliar to all readers of the
public journals. I will only add that his aspect

268 FIRST INTERVIEW WITH

was that of a worn-out and exhausted person, but with
an eye of the most penetrating nature, and a general
recklessness of spirit that seemed to care very little
about the means employed to accomplish his ends,
provided they could be successfully employed. It
was understood at this period, in all circles in Cairo,
that his principal enjoyment was in his harem, which
already contained some hundreds of the most beau-
tiful women of Georgia and Circassia ; and that there
was no present that would so effectually prepare the
way for the grant of any favour as that of a young
and beautiful virgin. Whatever were the imputed
heresies of which he was accused, as departures from
the Moslem faith, or lapsing into infidelity, in this he
was a perfect Mohammedan, and resembled the great
Prophet himself in the peculiarities of taste ascribed
to him by the Arab historians, as recorded by
Gibbon.

In the course of his conversation he said he was
glad at length to have met with an English traveller
who could give him practical information on two of
the subjects which then most occupied his attention, —
namely. Commerce and Navigation, — because he was
persuaded that Egypt was a country especially cal-
culated to benefit by both. The European gentle-
men that had hitherto been introduced to him, though

MOHAMMED ALI PASHA. 269

110 doubt well informed on other subjects, (being
mostly men of fortune fresh from the universitieSj and
travelling either for pleasure or for antiquarian re-
searches,) were generally ignorant of both; and he
had learned nothing from them on these two subjects.
He desired me, therefore, as I had passed some years
in the practice of navigation and maritime trade, to
give him, with the utmost frankness, my views as to
the best means he could take to promote both for
Egypt, either towards Europe and America in the
West, or to India and China in the East. I accordingly
stated to him my vie\YS at great length, in an audience
which lasted from seven in the evening^, after the sun-
set meal, to midnight, the substance of which was
nearly as follows : —

I observed that the chief cause of the superiority
of Europe and America, over Asia and Africa,
was the greater amount of knowledge, and its wider
diflPusion, among all classes of their inhabitants.
Reading and writing being known to almost all above
the very lowest classes, each individual could possess
himself of the information acquired and recorded by
others, as well as that which he gathered from his
own experience ; and the accumulated mass of know-
ledge every day added to the common store was,
therefore, immense. This led to all manner of dis-

270 EDUCATION OF EGYPTIAN YOUTHS

coveries in agriculture, mining, and manufactures,
in which geology, mineralogy, chemistry, and botany
produced daily improvements. The science of astro-
nomy being well understood, made navigation to the
most distant parts of the world as easy as mere coast-
ing voyages were to the ancients. And by this con-
stantly-increasing knowledge, the wealth and power of
nations, as well as individuals, went on augmenting
from year to year. Now in Egypt especially, intelli-
gence was confined to very few, and that of the most
limited kind, while the great bulk of the people re-
mained in profound ignorance, and were hardly a
degree above the wild tribes of uncivilised lands. The
first great want of Egypt, therefore, was Knowledge.
The importation of this into the country at once
might be impossible ; first, because it would be diffi-
cult to get any number of professors from Europe,
competent by their knowledge of Arabic to teach
what they knew to any number of pupils in this coun-
try ; and secondly, being Christian professors, the re-
ligious prejudices of the people might be alarmed at
the possible introduction of heresy or infidelity, so that
pupils could not be got to attend them. This diffi-
culty might be overcome, however, by the following
mode: — Let your Highness (said I), select, from the
families of Cairo, belonging to the officers of Govern-

IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. 271

ment, a hundred or more of intelligent youths, from
fourteen to sixteen years of age, and send them at your
own expense to England, France, and America, there
to be educated and maintained at your cost till twenty-
one years of age, so diversifying their studies as that
there should be scarcely any useful art or science
taught in either of these countries which some of
them at least would not acquire ; sending all at first
to school or college for three or four years, and then
dispersing them, — some into the agricultural, some
into the manufacturing, and others into the ship-
building towns — to acquire a practical knowledge of
each of these important branches of knowledge.
When their studies were completed let them return
to Egypt, and there become a constituted body of
Professors, to teach all they had themselves acquired
to others, which, Arabic being their native tongue,
and Mohammedanism their religion, they could do
wdthout the difficulties and prejudices which would
prevent the success of European teachers. And their
places being supplied by others sent abroad to study
in the same manner, a perpetual supply of intelligent
men would be constantly added to the Egyptian popu-
lation. I assured the Pasha this would be at once the
cheapest and most efficient mode of advancing his
country in that knowledge and those arts which dis-

272 FURTHER SUGGESTIONS OFFERED.

tinguislied civilised nations from barbarous ones.
I cited to him the examples of the ancient Greeks
coming into Egypt to acquire the knowledge of which
it was then the chief seat, such as Pythagoras, He-
rodotus, and others ; that of the ancient Romans
going to Athens to improve their knowledge from the
Greeks ; and of the western nations going to Rome
for a similar purpose ; and in every case with evident
individual and national advantage.

The Pasha listened to all this with great attention,
interposing every now and then an inquiry, which
was answered ; when he assured me he was so con-
vinced of the wisdom of the advice, that he should
at once act upon it, which in reality he did ; and I
have myself subsequently had the pleasure to receive
in London the visits of several of these students, as
well as to meet with them at Liverpool, Manchester,
Birmingham, and elsewhere ; but whether this policy
is still continued, I know not. As far as it went,
however, it has advanced Egypt half a century at
least in her career, and made the European name and
character, which was once an opprobrium in Egypt,
a sure passport to respect, attention, and hospitality.

The next consideration was, what could be done,
in the meantime, of more immediate operation, to
induce English merchants to visit Egypt, and to

RECOMMEND IMPROVED CULTURE OF COTTON. 273

establish a mutually advantageous commerce be-
tween these two countries. To this I observed,
that the English were an enterprising and money-
making people ; and wherever a reasonable hope of
profit presented itself, they would be sure to be
attracted in large numbers. At present the com-
merce of Egypt with England was of limited extent,
chiefly from two causes. Its grain could not be ad-
mitted but on payment of high duties, levied as a
protection to British agriculture ; and its cotton,
indigo, and sugar were in little or no request, from
the inferiority of their qualities. With respect to
any change in the fiscal system of England relating
to the free admission of corn, however desirable this
might be for the general benefit of all classes, the
landed interest was too powerful in the legislature to
encourage much hope of any speedy change. But
with respect to the improvement and qualities of the
other products named, this was entirely within his
own power to effect. I recommended him, therefore,
to begin with cotton, the quality of which was then
so coarse, and its preparation for the market so im-
perfect, that it stood at the lowest point in the scale
of prices, and could only be used in making the
most inferior fabrics. I advised him to send at
once an agent and a ship to the Southern States of

VOL. II. T

274 SUGGESTIONS FOR INCREASING

America — say Georgia, Alabama, or Louisiana —
provided with sufficient capital to purchase seeds of
the best kinds of cotton grown on the coast and
in the interior of these States, offering large I'e-
wards to any persons thoroughly acquainted with the
mode of planting and rearing this cotton through
all its stages, and purchasing all the necessary ma-
chinery .for picking, cleaning, and packing it when
ready for exportation. I ventured to predict that, if
this were done, the Pasha would soon see the cotton
of Egypt taking i*ank, side by side, with that of the
sea-island cotton of America, becoming quite as
much in demand, and producing fully as high a
price ; the fact being that the consumption of cotton
by the manufacturers of England increased at a more
rapid rate than its present production, and that the
demand for the raw material was therefore sure to
increase. I added, " Your higlmess has only to follow
this advice, and you will find that English merchants
and English agents will flock to Egypt in much
larger numbers than those who now visit it to gratify
their learned curiosity in the examination of its mar-
vellous antiquities."

Of this advice the Pasha also expressed his entire
approbation ; and it was speediiy carried into effect.
The result has been that Egyptian cotton has risen

THE TRADE AND COMMERCE OF EGYPT. 275

from the coarsest to the finest kind produced, and its
price raised at least threefold. Large cargoes of it are
now imported, and have been for some years past,
into the Mersey and the Clyde, for the manufactures
of Manchester and Glasgow ; and for every cargo of
raw cotton imported into England and Scotland, a
cargo of manufactured goods is sent to Egypt, so that
both countries are enriched by this improvement and
exchange ; indeed it would not be extravagant to set
down the gain to England during the twenty years
this has been in operation (for it is thirty years since
the advice was given and the experiment set on foot)
at several millions sterling.

Our next topic was that of the re-opening the an-
cient Canal, for the purpose of making a navigable
route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, and
thus facilitating the passage of laden ships to and from
England and India. On this subject the Pasha re-
marked that he was at first certainly fascinated with
the idea, and If it had been suggested to him before
he had commenced his war against the Wahabees in
Arabia, he should have ordered it to be commenced
without delay. "But," he added, "I have since
seen a great deal which makes me hesitate, as I have
now serious doubts of the policy of such an under-
taking, as far at least as the interests of Egypt arc

T 2

276 MODE OF OUR OPERATING

involved." As I could not imagine what tliis could
be, I bessed his hio-hness in all frankness to state to
me explicitly his reasons ; that if they appeared to me
groundless, I might endeavour to answer them ; but
if sound, to acquiesce in their validity. " To say
the truth, then," said he, " while I was recently at
Jedda,.I saw a large number of vessels in the har-
bour there with English colours, and I inquired
whether they had come from England : to which the
answer was. No ; that they came from Bombay, Cey-
lon, Madras, and Calcutta ; some from the Mauritius,
and others from the Cape of Good Hope. But, I
asked, do all these places then belong to the English ?
Oh, yes, said my informer, an intelligent merchant
of Jedda, and a great many more, — such as the
northern portion of America called Canada, the
Islands of the West Indies, and many ports along
the west coast of Africa, and the Mediterranean. I
asked how this happened, — whether the English had
been invited by the inhabitants of these countries to
rule over them ; or whether they had taken them in
the ordinary way of conquest by the sword. Cer-
tainly not the former, said the merchant, nor yet
exactly by the latter. But the mode they usually
adopted, and which was particularly tlie case in
India, where they have an empire larger than all their

IN OUR INDIAN EMPIRE. 277

other possessions put togetlier, was tliis : — They first
asked permission of the native rulers to be allowed
to settle among them as merchants and traders,
making it out that it would be for their mutual ad-
vantage. This being readily granted, they waited a
reasonable time, and then asked leave to build a few
factories to store their goods, and preserve them from
injury or robbery. As nothing could be more rea-
sonable, this privilege was also accorded. But it
was next pretended that these accumulated stores of
merchandise offered such temptations to the natives
for plunder, that unless they were allowed to fortify
them with a few cannon, and employ a few troops
with muskets as a guard, there could be no safety for
their property. The unsuspecting natives granted
even this privilege also, and soon after their fate was
sealed. It is well known, continued the merchant,
that nothing is more easy than to pick a quarrel on
the slightest grounds, if parties are disposed to do so.
The English now pretended to discover that unless
some territory were added to their factories, their
safety would be very imperfect ; and the native In-
dians were not now in so good a condition to refuse
as before ; for he who makes a demand with arms
and troops to back it, is hardly likely to submit to a
refusal. In this way, by continued encroachment

T 3

ts

278 INFERENCES DRAWN BY THE PASHA

and progression, the English, who were originally
admitted as mere traders on the coast, have now
possessed themselves of all India, where- rhey- -rule
over a country as large as that of the: Sultan 'of the j
Faithful, and far more rich and populous, — having yl
a revenue of a hundred millions of dollars, and a
population of a hundred, millions of souls. This,
concluded the Pasha, is what was told'meat-Jedda.
What say you to the history? — is it false, or is it
true?" I was not then so conversant, by a great
deal, as I afterwards became, with the history of
India, and our riiode of acquiring our possessions
there; so that I replied, "I could not say it was
false; but, as far as my own knowledge went, I was
inclined to fear it was true." "Then," said the
Pasha, " if this Canal be made, which nation of
Europe will make most use of it for their ships ?
Will it not be the English, in passing from their own
country to their Indian empire, and back again ?" I
replied, " Undoubtedly." " And do you not think,"
said he, " that when they come to see this beautiful
garden of Egypt, which is now nr.y own, they will
envy me its possession ; and with that propensity
which they have hitherto manifested, of first falling in
love with a country, and then taking possession of it,
many years will not pass before they will pick a quar-

•i*'

AGAINST RE- OPENING THE CANAL. 279

rel with me about the Canal, or the tolls, or any other
disputable point ; and cut the matter short, by using
their ships, which aire known be the largest and best
armed in the world, and in which 'any number of
troops may be conveyed, to take possession of Egypt,
as they have done of India, and pretend that it is for
the interests of its inhabitants that this change of rulers
should be effected?" I was obliged to admit, that
judging from the antecedents of our history, this was
not improbable. " And should I not then," continued
the PasHa,: ", be. thus sharpening the knife by which
m}"- owii throat was to be cut ? No, no, I will never
be guilty of this folly, at least, but wait until I hear
that • your countrymen have becoiiie cured of this
propensity of taking what does not belong to them,
and justifying the theft by alleging that the plun-
dered parties are all the happier for their change of
masters, before I give my sanction to any Canal be-
tween the two seas." In this Socratic mode of con-
ducting the dialogue, I found the logic of the un-
educated but sagacious Turk impossible to be re-
futed; and therefore, though with great reluctance,
I considered this question of the Canal to be settled
in the negative, during his lifetime at least.

After the lapse of a few days, a second interview
was appointed, also in the evening, after the business

T 4

280 ON REVIVING THE COMMERCE

of the divan had been concluded, when I was invited
to join the Pasha at his dinner or evening-meal, taken
just after sunset ; and after all the guests had with-
drawn, Boghos Yuseff and myself remained with him
again until midnight. Our conversation was now
chiefly on the hydrography of the Red Sea, and the
practicability of reviving the ancient commerce be-
tween India and Egypt, wdiich I said all I could to
induce him to encourage, and to wliicli he expressed
no objection whatever. Having in my possession one
of the latest English charts of the Red Sea, I pointed
out all the principal positions on it to the Pasha, with
which he seemed much delighted. I explained to him
the nature of the trade winds and monsoons, the
ebbing and flowing of the tides, (which, as this phe-
nomenon does not exist in the Mediterranean, excited
his especial wonder,) and the difficulties iu the way of
navigation, from the immense beds of coral, often
risino; to the surface and runnino; for several miles in
unbroken reefs. I transcribed also on this chart the
names of all the towns and harbours in Arabic cha-
racters, which gave it additional value in his estima-
tion, and with which he several times expressed him-
self much pleased.

At the close of our interview he said, that, as he
understood I was going to India, on behalf of tlie

BETWEEN INDIA AND EGYPT. 281

mercantile house of the British consul Mr. Lee, he
would give me a commission to purchase some ships
for him, with which to commence this Indian trade,
and a credit on Bombay to pay for the same, as well
as a letter to the Government there in my behalf; and
if the Indian merchants should be disposed to load
such vessels with merchandise, he hoped I would re-
turn in charge of the vessels so to be sent, to the
safety of which he would contribute by every means
in his power, and do all he could to make the com-
merce mutually advantageous. With this assurance
I was entirely satisfied ; and as the Pasha intended
immediately to return to the campaign in Arabia, I
employed the remainder of my short stay in Cairo to
prepare for my Indian voyage accordingly; 1

282

CHAP. XVII.

Departure for India by Suez and the Red Sea.— Harem of the
Pasha gohig to the Holy War. — Mounts Horeb and Sinai,
Ailoth and Ezion Geber. — Fearful storm, and loss of life and
property.— Arrival at Jedda, the port of Mecca.— Extreme
illness, and reception by an Arab merchant. — Visit from
Othman, a Scotsman become a Turk. — Removal on board
an English ship in the harbour. — Kindness and attention of
Captain Boog — Speedy recovery.- Visit from Mr. Burckhardt,
who came down from Mecca. — Anecdote of Othman, and the
Scotch catechism. — Mistranslation of the Scriptures into
Arabic — Letters of Mr. Burckhardt from Mecca.— Anec-
dote of an Indian Fakir and his prayers. — Successful issue
of faith and perseverance.

Almost immediately after our interview, the Pasha,
who had made a hurried visit to Cairo, for the direc-
tion of some public affairs, returned again to Arabia
to continue his campaign against the Wahabees, a set
of Arab reformers, deriving their name from their
great apostle Abd-el-Wahab, a kind of Mohammedan
Luther, who denounced the superstitions and prac-
tices of the present race of Moslems, and contended
for a purer faith, and more rigid observance of its
doctrines. Like most religious wars, therefore, it was

DEl'ARTUKE FOE INDIA. 283

carried on with great inveteracy on either side. I re-
mained a short time after this to prepare for my In-
dian voyage, and when all was ready left Cairo for
this purpose.

I was furnished with all the necessary letters and
commissions for India, from Colonel Missett and the
Pasha, as well as from Mr. Lee, on account of his
mercantile establishment; and Boghos Yuseif placed
me under the special charge of the Emir el Hadj, or
Prince of the Caravan, just then departing for Suez,
with an immense concourse of pilgrims bound to the
Holy City of Mecca. This officer was the Treasurer
of the Pasha, and had assumed the name of " Buo-
naparte." There was in the same party a young
German enthusiast, Dr. Kesler, who it was said had
killed a rival lover in an affray at Vienna, and es-
caped here for refuge; and who, from wearing a
naked dagger suspended round his neck inside his
shirt, and evincing most extraordinary eccentricities,
was considered as a madman by the Tui'ks, and was
therefore sure of their protection, as they regard
all such persons as peculiar favourites of Allah. I
was unfortunately suffering great debility from a
severe fever, which made the journey across the
Desert painful and tedious, and the more so as the
immense number of camels, and persons — twenty

284 PLACES OF NOTE ON OUR ROUTE.

thousand in all it was said — made our progress un-
usually slow. Among the parties going on the pil-
grimage to Mecca, were thirty ladies of the harem
of Mohammed Ali, who, it was alleged, after seeing
the Holy City and performing their devotions there,
were to join his highness in his encampment as a
light travelling detachment, to solace his hours of
leisure from the fatigues of war ! These travelled in
wheeled carriages closely veiled with curtains, through
which, however, every now and then, a young and
pretty face was seen to look out, enjoying the scene
with a pleasing smile, and then retiring to give place
to some other beauty.

We reached Suez on the 18th of October, and
finding a large fleet of native vessels, called dows,
assembled here for the conveyance of such of the
pilgrims as might prefer the sea route to Jedda, while
others went by land, I obtained a berth on board one
of these ; and on the. following day we proceeded on
our voyage. The incidents of our passage from Suez
to Jedda were numerous and varied ; and the places
passed — including the site of encampment of the
Israelites under Moses ; the wells whose waters were
changed from bitter to sweet at his intervention ; the
port of Tor, and hoary mountains of Horeb and
Sinai ; the gulf of Akaba, and ports of Ailoth

TAKE SHIP TO JEDDA. 285

and Ezion Geber, from which Solomon's fleets sailed
on their distant voyages to Tarshish, Ophir, and
the East; and a great number of other equally
interesting spots — might well deserve a lengthened
description — which indeed my Journals kept on the
way contain — but I forbear what might be considered,
perhaps, in the present instance at least, a digression
from the Personal Narrative, and content myself
with a single extract from my unpublished manu-
scripts of this voyage, as strictly belonging to what
may be called personal adventures, and at the same
time as furnishing a specimen of the kind of dangers
to be encountered in the navigation of the Red Sea
by the native vessels of the country.

To avoid the excessive heat, cramped position, in-
numerable insects and vermin, and clamorous noise,
which had all to be encountered by remaining on
board the vessel, I had contrived a very secure and
ao-reeable retreat, of a novel but most efficient kind.
I made, from the spare rope on board, of which I
purchased a small coil, a strong open net, sufficiently
large to enclose my whole person. This was made
to hang over the stern of the vessel, and to be lowered
down and hoisted up by a double block tackle. Into
this net I enshrouded myself every morning after
breakfast, and lowering it down to the water's edge.

286 FEARFUL STORM.

I lay securely sheltered in the shade of the over-
hanging stern, and heard no other noise than the
pleasant rush and gurgle of the water occasioned by
the vessel's track around the rudder ; while, if it
became unusually warm, having complete command
of the tackle-fall, I could lower myself entirely
beneath the surface of the water, and after a cool
plunge-bath, hoist myself up again to my original
position, and dry my loose garments, on as they were,
without any risk of taking cold. On the 25th of
October, however, we had a most disagreeable inter-
ruption to our usual course. We were then in the
latitude of about 27° N.,— Suez being in 30° N,,— and
towards evening we anchored as usual, this being the
constant practice when the wind was not fair, in a
small bay near Istubbal Antar ; when the huge sail
was unbent, the tiller unshipped, and all prepared for
our remaining here till morning. A change, however,
soon came over the weather, the character of which
and the consequences to which it led, will be seen
from the record of it which I here transcribe from
the IManuscript Journal of that day.

" The brilliance of the moon was occasionally ob-
scured by a dark and heavy cloud, and this veiling of
her light became more frequent, until the sky was
completely overcast; and after half an hour's vivid

FEARFUL STORM. 287

liglitning, it poured down a deluge of rain. It was
as if the stormy elements were contending with each
other for tlie palm of supremacy in terror, wliile
earth, air, and ocean stood alike unagitated to behold
the conflict ; for while the lightning flashed around us
in all the grandeur of its awful glare, and one con-
tinued torrent of rain seemed as if it had been poured
out by some superior hand to quench the fiery stream,
all else was still and motionless in one unbroken calm.
Soon afterwards, however, strong gusts of wind rushed
down between the hills, and every squall blew us from
our anchorage. We lay, as usual, with our sail
unbent, and while the passengers were shrieking with
alarm, the crew were lost in fear and confusion. The
shipping the tiller, bending the sail, and setting it,
was generally the work of an hour; but the anchor
Avas now sufficient to pre-occupy their attention, as
they were the more afraid of losing it, from its being
the only one they possessed. Amidst the general
outcry, the gusts of wind became more frequent and
more furious ; we were every moment approaching
nearer to destruction on a lee-shore ; and despair
was seen in every countenance, and heard in every
voice.

" I will not say that ' our situation may be more
easily imagined than described,' for however difficult

288 FEARFUL ST0R3I.

would be the latter, I believe the former to be impos-
sible to all who were not on the spot. We had on
board eightj-seven male pilgrims, besides their wives
and children, which, including the crew, made a total
of more than two hundred persons, and not a voice
among them was silent. I had attempted an inter-
ference on my first perceiving the danger; and since
there was neither a spare anchor to let go, nor more
cable to veer out upon the one by which we rode, I
advised the immediate bending of the sail, and stand-
ing out to sea, as the only means of safety. My pro-
posal of braving the offing in a night of such tem-
pestuous weather as this, was regarded as that of a
madman, and was consequently rejected ; so that I
retired in silence, stripped myself of all my garments,
except my loose Arab cotton drawers, and slinging
over one shoulder my sword, and over the other the
small case in which ni}^ letters of introduction and
commissions, my manuscript notes and my watch
were contained, I rolled myself in my net beneath
the stern, prepared for leaping overboard and swim-
ming for my life if necessary. In the mean time the
reis gave twenty contradictory orders in a breath ;
the crew hurried from stem to stern, and from stern
to stem again, without effecting anything ; the
children shrieked with affright at the uproar ; and

LOSS OF LIFE AND rROPERTY. 289

tlie women uttered the bitterest cries of despair ;
while one portion of the pilgrims, who insisted upon
prayer as the only means of saving us, absolutely
fought for room in which to perform their prostra-
tions ; and the other joined the crew in accusing
them of being untrue believers, and of having no
faith in God, whose prophet Mohammed had de-
clared, that *what he has written must come to
pass,' and therefore prayers could not avail. Never
did I before witness such a scene as this storm pre-
sented ; and it will be impossible for me ever to lose
the recollection of it.

" The worst, however, had not yet arrived ; for
having been drifted out into deeper water by the
gusts of wind coming down through the valleys, a
sudden and violent squall taking the dow upon her
larboard quarter, luffed her instantly to the wind ;
and when she again fell off with stern-way, laid her
gunwale completely tinder water. About thirty of
the poor wretches, who were to leeward, were
tumbled into the sea ; the heavy baggage of the
deck followed next, and wounded many of them ;
several horses had their legs broken, five of the
men were drowned, and all were more or less
mangled and injured.

" Though I escaped all personal injury from the

VOL. IT. U

290 ARRIVAL AT JEDDA,

security in which I lay suspended over the stern, I
was a loser of some of the most important part of
my baggage, including clothes, papers, nautical in-
struments, arms and ammunition, and all my stock
of cash; so that my plight was a pitiable one in which
to appear at Jedda, as the representative of the Bri-
tish merchants of Egypt and agent of the Pasha of
that country."

After a most tedious and painful voyage of ten
days more, we reached Jedda on Sunday the 6th of
November ; but by this time I was so ill with fever
and so weak by exhaustion, that it was with consider-
able difficulty that 1 was removed to the shore. Here,
however, I found a most hospitable reception at the
house of Araby Jellany, a native merchant of Jedda,
who acted as the English agent at the port, in the
absence of any consul ; and such aids, as a quiet
room, cooling drinks, and assiduous attention could
afford me, I happily enjoyed ; but neither medical
advice nor medicine of any kind was procurable, so
that Nature was left to work out her own course.

I remained at Jedda from the 6th of November
1814 to the 13th of January 1815: a period full of
most interesting incidents, during which also I ac-
quired a great deal of new and curious information
respecting this portion of Arabia, and the pilgrimages

THE PORT OF MECCA. 291

made to Mecca and Medina ; but I refrain from all
details, except those which may be said to relate
strictly to my personal history and adventures.

Soon after my arrival at the house of Araby Jel-
lany, I was visited by a young Scotsman, a native ot
Perth, who had come out to Egypt as a drummer in
a Scotch regiment at the time of General Frazer's
disastrous expedition and defeat at Alexandria. He
was then taken prisoner, assigned as a slave of war
to a Mameluke chief, was brought up by him, half-
converted to Islamism, and at his master's death suc-
ceeded to his property, his wives and his slaves, and
became a man of substance and authority. He was
now known under the name of Othman ; and though
he preserved all his northern peculiarities of light
complexion, sandy hair, and moustaches, freckled
face, light- blue eyes, and yellowish eyebrows and
eyelashes, his dress, air, and manners were com-
pletely those of a Turk. He preserved, however, all
his veneration for his native country, and his sympa-
thies for all who came from thence. Nothing could be
more kind and attentive than he was to me during
my illness ; and everything that money, personal
exertion, and care could procure for me, was done
most cheerfully and efficiently. From Othman I
learnt that Mr. Burckhardt, or Sheik Ibrahim, was at

u 2

292 REMOVAL TO AN ENGLISH SHir.

Mecca, and that an English ship from Bombay was
then in the harbour, commanded by an English cap-
tain. I accordingly desired him to write to Mr.
Burckhardt, as I was too ill to do so myself, saying,
what pleasure it would give me to see him at Jedda
if possible ; and to tell his countryman. Captain
Boog, that a visit from him would also be most ac-
ceptable,— both of which were done without delay.

On the follow^ing morning Captain Boog called on
me, and pressed me to be taken immediately on board
his ship, the Suffeenut-ul-Kussool — or Messenger of
the Prophet, — a vessel belonging to a Persian mer-
chant in Bombay, named Mohammed Ali, in which
he had brought a cargo here, and was waiting to
gather up one for India in return. It is impossible
to describe tlie pleasure and relief which this change
of domicile gave me. I had a spacious and airy cabin
at my command, all the little comforts of European
life, — chicken-broth, tea, arrow-root, delicious biscuits,
poultry, fish after the English manner of cooking, be-
sides more substantial viands ; and the constant and
assiduous attention of Captain Boog, his officers, and
steward. With such aids, and the current of fresh
air blowing through the cabin without exposure to
the sun, I rapidly recovered ; but such was the ex-
haustion of my frame from fever and privation, that

VISITED BY MK. BUKCKHARDT. 293

I required some kind of food every hour ; and taken
in small quantities at a time, all was assimilated, and
added dailj to my strength; while the entertainment
of books, chess, backgammon, music, and conversa-
tion on topics of mutual interest, made the hours
])ass rapidly and agreeably, without ever leaving a
sense of weariness or ennui.

During this period Mr. Burckhardt came down
from Jedda to pay me a visit, and Captain Boog
received him aboard his ship, as well as Othraan, by
whom he was accompanied. As we were here per-
fectly free from intrusion or interruption, we enjoyed
to the full the " feast of reason and the flow of soul ; "
and the reciprocal recital of our separate adventures
passing over a long period of time with each, would
have made a good volume of Travellers' Tales.
Poor Othman was, however, now and then in difficulty
from his scruples of conscience preventing his return
to European habits, and a fear of disgracing his Mos-
lem faith. As wine was served at the cabin-table
with the dinner, Mr. Burckhardt, though professing
to be a Mohammedan, and travelling as such, never-
theless took a glass without hesitation. But Othman
at first declined. Being rallied, however, by his
brother Moslem, his resistance gave way, and he

u 3

294 OTHMAN, A MAHOMETAN SCOTSMAN :

took a single glass also. Whether it was the
motion of the ship, though at anchor, or the long
disuse of wine, or both combined, perhaps, we could
not say, but in fact he became sick ; and he gravely
and seriously attributed this to divine wrath, as a
punishment for his infringing the precepts of the
Koran ! His lingering attachment to his original
faith of Christianity was shown, however, in the habit
which he maintained of always carrying with him a
small pocket-bible, in which were inscribed on the
fly-leaf the following lines : —

" J — M — it is my name,

And Scotland is ray nation,
Perth, it is my native place,
And Christ is my salvation ;"

and he would frequently, in the most naive manner
possible, attempt to prove that certain views pro-
pounded in the Koran could not be correct, because
they were at variance with other views contained
in the Gospel ; and vice versa that certain doctrines of
the New Testament could not be of divine origin,
because they were opposed to the doctrines of the
Koran.

One of the most amusing exhibitions of this mixed
religion, however, was narrated to us by himself as

HIS QUESTION OUT OF THE SCOTCH CATECHISM. 295

follows : — It is the custom during the pilgrimage
at Mecca, for the coffee-houses there to be much
frequented by devotees and theological disputants ;
and after the news of the day has been told, questions
of faith and practice are propounded for conside-
ration. On one occasion, Othman himself felt
strongly tempted to show his power in this respect,
and, if possible, to puzzle some of the learned
doctors. He accordingly, remembering the first
question in the Scotch Catechism, with which he was
familiar from his youth, demanded of them an answer
to the same. The question strictly is in these terms
— " What is the chief end of man?" meaning, for
what end or purpose was he created, and what is the
duty he is intended to perform ? Now the Arabic
language, more copious than our own, has several
meanings attached to the word that corresponds
literally with the English term end. Our own, it
will be remembered, has at least three meanings ;
one being end — purpose, intention, object, — as in
Pope —

" For when success a lover's toils attend,
Few ask if fraud or force attained bis end;"

another being the termination of any labour, or ces-

u 4

296 MISTRANSLATION OF THE

sation of work, both of which are expressed bj
Denham in the well known line —

"No end of writing books — and to no end ;"

meaning "no cessation," and "to no purpose;"
and a third meaning is, the extremity of any material
point, — as the end of a line, the extremity of a rod,
the uj)per or lower end of a statue or a pillar.

It was in this third sense, the most generally used
perhaps of all, that Othman translated the question
of the Scotch Catechism, making it literally this : —
"Which is the principal extremity of man?" To
such a question the first response was a loud laugh,
at its extreme absurdity, and then a considerable
pause; after which, some said the question was not
theological, and others that it was not intelligible.
One of the grave doctors, however, with an irony
the more pointed from the solemnity of his exterior,
said he thought he could offer at least a conditional
answer to the question, which would be this: — " If
the man were a foot soldier, a messenger, or a
labourer whose avocations required him to use his
legs more than any other portion of his body, his
* chief extremity ' would be his feet. If, on the
other hand, the man were a pasha, a cadi, a mufti,
or a merchant, who laboured most with his brain.

SCKIPTUKES INTO ARABIC. 297

his head would be his chief extremity ; but if he
belonged to that large class who neither walked much
afoot, nor troubled their heads with anything beyond
the pleasure of the passing hour, his * chief ex-
tremity ' would be found in the centre of his body,
as he made more use of his haunches to support his
trunk as he sat, than any other portion of his frame."
A general peal of laughter accompanied this solution,
and Othman wisely resolved never to try his hand
upon the Scotch Catechism through the medium of
an Arabic translation aoain.

o

On the subject of imperfect translation, we heard,
while at Jedda, that Araby Jellany had received some
copies of the Arabic translation of the Hebrew and
Greek Scriptures from the agent of the Bible Society
at Bombay, to have them put into circulation at
Mecca ; but the imperfection of the translation had
produced the most unflivourable effects, as they were
quoted in the coffee-houses as proofs of the ignorance
of the authors or translators. One passage of the
New Testament, I specially remember, — one of the
sayings of Our Lord himself: "Judge not, that ye
be not judged," was translated thus: "Be not just
to others, lest others should be just to you;" and
many passages equally remote from their original
meaning besides.

298 LETTER or MR. BURCKHARDT

After a short but most agreeable stay with us at
Jedda, Mr. Burckhardt left for Mecca to attend the
duties of the pilgrimage, and Othman, the Turk,
accompanied him. On Christmas-day I received
the following letter from Mr. Burckhardt at Mecca,
in which the peculiarities of his orthography are
preserved : —

Mekke, 11th of Mehan-em, 1230.

My dear Sir. — The cabin-boy of the "Rasool" very
unexpectedly gave me his "Salam Aleikum" this morn-
ing in the bazar ; and when I treated him as a runaway,
he produced the boatswain and a third comrade to prove
that they had all come here with Captain Boog's leave.
My judgment was overruled by such respectable wit-
nesses, and as they told me that they intended to return
to Jidde this evening, I thought I might safely trust them
with these lines, the purpose of which is merely to tell
you that I am well, that the caravan does not move yet,
and that I infinitely regret to have lost all this time,
since I might else have spent it in yours and Captain
Boog's society.

The troops are all here with the Pasha, who is exclu-
sively occupied at present with the transport of provi-
sions to Tay. The horsemen stationed at Tay have
made some successful incursions towards the east and
south, and brought home about 8,000 sheep ; but no
battle of consequence has taken place. The Pasha re-
serves the fame of a doubtful victory to himself.

FROM MECCA. 299

Among the various nations and sects resorting to
Mekke during the Hadji time, is a sect of Indian Mus-
selmins, called Ismayles, men of property, who come
from Surat, but whose country is in the interior of the
peninsula. They sell here Tornaline, false pearls, China
ware, &c. It is well known that they are not true Moha-
medans, although they are very strict in the performance
of prayers and religious rites, and it is generally supposed
that they are pagans. They live altogether, in a large
house where they admit no other lodgers. They never
bring any females with them, although twenty or thirty
arrive here every year, and many have been known to
live here for ten years without marrying, which is much
against the customs of this country. During my stay in
the mountains of the north 1° 00' of Mount Libanus in
Syria, I got acquainted with the sect of Syrian Ismay-
lees, who likewise profess Mohamedism, but are well
known to be pagans, and supposed to adore the " pudenda
muliebris ;" and I heard it once said, " en passant" in an
evening society of Christians at Hamah, that these Is-
mayles have their principal temple in the East Indies,
and send every year by way of Bagdad one of their
followers with presents to that holy shrine. The Syrian
Ismayles practise yearly feasts to Venus, when they mix
in nocturnal embraces with their nearest friends, pa-
rents, and relations.

I should be much obliged to you if you would have the
kindness, upon your arrival at Bombay, to make some
Inquiries as to the sect and religion of these Ismayles,
and whether it is known there that they are in relation-
ship with their Syrian brethren. An Indian Israaylee

300 LETTER OF MR. BURCKHARDT

might perhaps be prevailed on to make some disclosures
to an Englishman which a Syrian Ismaylee would never
make to an inhabitant of his country ; and to get some
true information respecting this singular sect would be
extremely interesting.

This is perhaps the last letter you will ever receive
from Mekke, and I ought therefore to make it a long one,
but I have really nothing to tell you of immediate in-
terest, and the boy comes this moment to ask for this
letter. Therefore, farewell, my dear Sir ! May your hopes
be realised, — may your good fortune enable you to pro-
vide for your dear family in Indian climes, and may we
once meet again, both satisfied with the result of past
time and labour. Wherever fate carries you, remember,
I beg you, an honest Swiss, who reckons himself among
the most sincere of your friends.

Hadj Icrahim.

Give my best compliments to Captain Boog, the me-
mory of whose friendly hospitality and conversation will
certainly never be forgotten by me ; and if you write to
me from Bombay, do not fail to give me of his news.

Remember Rennell's Herodotus, and Seetzen's fate. — ■
[Written in haste, with a reed.]

The last portion of the postscript relates to a
promise I made Mr. Burckhardt to send for him at
Cairo a copy of Rennell's Illustrations of the Geo-
graphy of Herodotus, and also to inquire into the
fate of Dr. Seetzen, the German traveller, supposed

FROM MECCA. 301

to be poisoned in Yemen, wliicli inquiry I made at
Mocha, and sent tlie results in a communication to
the learned Baron von Hammer, the great Orientalist
of Berlin, by whom it was published in his well-
known work — " Les Mines de I'Orient," about 1816.
I replied to this letter on the following day, but
will not trouble the reader further than to say, that
among other things I expressed an ardent wish that
I could change my occupations and pursuits, which
had for their object merely the accumulation of
wealth by trade and commerce — in which were
many practices that an honourable mind could only
consider base and degrading — for the noble pursuit
in which he was engaged in the great work of geo-
graphical discovery, and the acquisition of knowledo-e.
Thus much is necessary to be premised, to render
Mr. Burckhardt's remarks in the following letter,
which I received from him on the 5tli of January,
1815, intelligible: —

Mekke, Tuesday, 2nd Januaiy, 1815.

My dear Sir Had I consulted only the warm feel-
ings of gratitude excited within my breast by the kind
expressions of friendship, interest, and remembrance,
contained in your letter of the 26th of December, I
should have answered it forthwith ; but as our mental
and feeling operations are unfortunately chained down to

302 LETTER OF MR. BURCKHARDT

our weak frame, the latter often forsakes us at the
moment the former most imperiously calls for its aid.
And thus it was with me. I have been laid up all last
week with a strong diarrhoea, and a slight fever, and was
not in a state to guide my pen until yesterday, but then
I received peremptory notice to quit my lodgings. I was
busy all day in searching for another, and in removing
my baggage after I had found it, and it is really not
until this morning that I find leisure and repose to con-
verse with you. I am now almost well, and shall be
completely so in a few days.

The love of glorious knowledge, and the hate of selfish
dealings, which swelled your bosom when you addressed
me last, have led you to pronounce too favourable a sen-
tence on my pursuits, and too harsh, too unjust a one on
yours. You call them base and degrading ! They are
not so, my dear Sir. They cannot be base, because they
are sanctified by honour, by duty, by parental love, and
connubial attachment, — the strongest ties which Nature
possesses to bind a generous heart ; they are noble, be-
cause they are virtuous, their object belongs to those
dear beings whose existence is interwoven with yours ;
and to become, and to have been, the author of their
happiness and comforts, will indeed be ever to you a
source of sweeter and purer joys than those which fickle
Fame bestows with her bounty upon her votaries. That
you dislike the means by which your object is to be
gained, I readily believe. But consider, I beseech you, that
among all the different pursuits which active life points
out to aspiring young men, who take virtue for their

FROM MECCA. 303

guide, not one can be found, the accomplishment of which
does not demand a sacrifice of years, passed in struggles
against the meanness and selfishness of others. The in-
dividual whom you characterise as having for his sole
object wealth, is met with not only in the mercantile
world. You see him pursue his trade through all classes
of life, and we unfortunately find that interest is the great
"mobile" which leads on, not merchants only, but man-
kind in general, and that interest is for the greater part
mere pecuniar^/ intei*est, in however different shapes it
may present itself. Therefore, relent, Sir. Call t/our pur-
suits no more base and degrading : I call mine so, because
they oblige me almost exclusively to mix and live for
many years with whatever is infamous, abject, and
wretched in human nature, infinitely worse than all your
wealth-hunters. Let us both manly work through our way
You exert yourself for your own comforts, but still more
for the happiness of those whom Nature and your arms
have placed nearest to your bosom. I should beguile
truth if I was denying that the prospect of ease and com-
fort has not likewise a considerable share in my exer-
tions. It is true I hope to Avrest a wreath from the hands
of Fame, but I much doubt whether the possession of
that wreath will be productive of as much heart-felt joy
and satisfaction to me as will be once to you the en-
dearing thanks and blessings of your family.

I thank you for your ready compliance with my wish
about the Ismayles, and I hope your inquiries may lead
to some interesting results.

The Pasha still remains here with about 1200 cavalry

304 LETTER OF MR. BURCKHABBT

and a few hundred infantry, greatly alarmed, and all the
soldiers terribly frightened at the news of Tamy's ap-
proach from the sea side. The latter probably expected
the Pasha already gone from Mekke, in order to attempt
a "coup de main" upon Jidda, and I have no doubt will
retire when he hears that the Pasha is still here with
part of his army ; but I am equally sure and confident,
that even if at this moment he should be bold enough
to approach Jidda, he would oblige the inhabitants to
capitulate in a few days for want of water, and the sol-
diers which the Pasha might send against him would
certainly prove cowards, and be easily defeated, so great
is the terror in which they hold that terrible Tamy, who
killed 600 of them at Gonfode in April last, and 900
under Abdim Bey in the valleys of Tohran, in October
last, stripping the army on both occasions of all money,
tents, baggage, &c.

The caravan to Medina is said to depart after four
days, I may therefore still flatter myself with an answer
to this letter. I have received a letter from Boghoz. On
the 1st of October, the great congress opened at Vienna.
Buonaparte has lately given a new coin to his Elba sub-
jects with tliis inscription, — " Napoleon Imperator et
Rex ubique fclix." He makes quite a laughing-stock of
himself, and it is but just that he should make his cotem-
poraries laugh at present, having so long wailed their
tears.

I forget that I owe you and Captain Boog my Christ-
mas and New Year's compliments. But I hope you
will pormit me to screen myself with Arabick customs,

FROM MECCA. 305

W'liicli are very modest upon this occasion, as well as any-
other feasts. The only compliment made to the friend of
your heart on this festival day, is — " May every year be
well with you." In giving to this well, the most liberal
interpretation, and making it include whatever may be
conducive to your and Captain Boog's happiness and
comforts, its meaning is explained, and my sense of
friendship for you furnishes me with one additional prayer
to this sentence only, viz.: — be well, and may your
heart always befriend and remember a short acquaint-
ance, it is true, but no less sincere and faithful a friend,

Hadj Ibrahim.

Do forgive my dirty letter work : my pen and ink
belong really to the number of " human miseries."

To this letter also I sent a reply ; for intercourse
with so agreeable a correspondent was a welcome
method of filling up a few hours of the day ; but not
to intrude unnecessarily on the space required for
other topics, I abstain from giving this also, and
content myself with transcribing the following, the
last letter I received from Mr. Burckhardt during
hi& stay in Arabia : —

Mekkc, 9 til January, 1815.

My DEAR Sir. — Your kind favour of last Saturday
would have been an antidote against the most inveterate
disease, so much it contains of true friendly and bcnevo-

VOL. II. X

306 LETTER OF MR. BURCKHARDT

lent sentiments ; it luckily, however, found me already
restored to perfect health, and the persuasion of having
acquired two new friends' solicitudes, and so much ex-
erted in my behalf, contributes more than any thing else
in exhilirating my spirits and keeping them on a level
with my projects. Hearing that you should leave Jidda
on Friday, I was greatly tempted to bid you a personal
adieu, and I am ashamed to confess that the dread of the
fatigues of a jackass ride alone prevents me from execut-
ing that design. But I shall myself depart from here on
Friday with the caravan, and I am afraid that a hasty
journey to Jidda and back again, the pleasure of seeing
you, and the regret of again parting with you, would
cause such a revolution in my blood as to make a relapse
of my fever not improbable. Eeceive, therefore, these
lines, my dear Sir, in lieu of the heartiest hand-shake.
If a sympathetic feeling, which has seldom misled me,
does not prove false in this instance, my heart whispers
to me that we shall see each other again, not as at pre-
sent, to talk of mutual hopes only, but to express our
satisfaction at reality.

I may probably remain twenty or thirty days at Me-
dineh. It is only by a prolonged stay that exact infor-
mation can be acquii'ed in these countries, where every
candid question is sui^e to find a lye for answer. I am
dayly correcting now the notes I took down during my
first stay at Mekke, and perhaps these corrections and
annotations would prove as false as their original text,
if I was to remain here another couple of months.

As soon as the news arrived here that the appearance

FROM MECCA. 307

of Tamy near Gonfode was a mere trick played off upon
the credulity of the Turks, the Pasha left Mekke, and
will no doubt immediately attack Taraba. This town is
at present quite deserted ; all the sti-eets are choked up
by rubbish and dirt, and the smell of carrion renders
several quarters quite uninhabitable. On the day the
Pasha left Mekke, thirty-five camels were reported to
have died, and upwards of three hundred have already
shared the same fate since the Hadj. The Egyptian
Fellah servants kill the camels, in order to get out of em-
ployment, and to obtain the permission of returning
home ; these camel drivers are the principal cause of
the Pasha's ill success. The latter will no doubt take
Taraba, but want of provisions will soon oblige him to
retreat, and the campaign will again close by garrisoning
Mekke and Tay only.

If you send from Mocha any letters to Cairo, I would
advise you not to address them to Gtllany, but to some
other merchants at Jidda. Gellany is still extremely
jealous of your stay at Jidda ; and I am persuaded he
would gladly interrupt your correspondence, if he thought
thus to embarrass or protract the execution of your pro-
jects. Any packet of letters he may receive from Mocha
after a couple of months, whether sent by Mr. Forbes or
yourself, will always incur the risk of being opened and
detained by him.

On Friday, therefore, we shall both start, and we shall
probably arrive about the same time, you at Mocha, and
myself at Cairo. I do not foresee the possibility of my leav-
ing the latter place again before October ; but I may be
X 2

308 ANECDOTE OF AN INDIAN FAKIR

detained still longer, as the arrival of the Fezzan caravans
is not regular, and I know of no other eligible towards
the interior of Africa. If you can work down the Straits
and arrive at Bombay before April, I may indulge the
hopes of seeing you again at Cairo; but if you are detained
by contrary winds at Mocha, our next meeting place can
be no other but that blessed Island which concentrates
all our wishes and our hopes. May Neptune and Mer-
cury be propitious to you, and guide you into the har-
bour even before I reach it !

I shall always remain, my dear Sir, with sentiments
of the warmest friendship, and the most sincere regard
and esteem.

Truly and faithfully yours,

II AD J Ibrahim.

His anticipations were happily realised ; for we
subsequently met again at Cairo, on my return to
Egypt from India, in the following year ; but I must
not anticipate, as I shall give an account of my in-
tercourse with him and Mr. Belzoni in the Egyptian
capital, in its proper place.

It will be remembered that in his first letter Mr.
Burckhardt refers to the sect of the Ismayles, whose
original seat is in India ; and who though they pro-
fess Mohammedanism when it serves their purpose,
are believed to be a remnant of the ancient Pagans,
who still adhere in secret to the faith of their ancestors.

AND HIS PEAYERS. 309

One of this sect came to Jedda during tlie present
year, and performed all the rites and ceremonies of
the pilgrimage at Mecca, after which he returned
to Jedda to re-embark for India. It happened, how-
ever, that he had run through all his means, and was
unable, therefore, to proceed on his voyage ; when,
with the ingenuity which is characteristic of the
fakirs, or mendicant religious orders, of which he
was one, he hit upon the following expedient to in-
crease his resources. As a man of unqviestioned
piety, he obtained permission of the muezzin, or
public crier of the principal mosque of Jedda, to
accompany him to the galleries of the minaret, and
assist with his fine voice in the invitation to prayer,
which is given five times a day from all the mosques,
in lieu of bells : these being held in abomination by
Mohammedans — chiefly, I believe, because they are
used by Christians ; just as prudish Protestants re-
pudiate all use of the Crucifix, because it is so much
■used by the Catholics ; though the Cross ought to be
equally regarded as a symbol of Christianity with
both. The invitation to prayer is addressed with a
solemn yet pleasing recitative, in the fine sonorous
tones of the Arabic language ; and literally inter-
preted, is this: "God is great! God is great! and
Mohammed is the Messenger of God! Come to

X 3

310 ANECDOTE OF AN INDIAN FAKIR

prayer, come to prayer, for prayer is better than
sleep ; " and so on, enjoining devotion as a duty with
which no other avocation should interfere. The
Fakir, however, not content with this profession of
faith and invitation to prayer, superadded a petition
to the Prophet to send him two suits of garments,
two horses well caparisoned, two sets of arms, two
young and chaste wives, and two purses of gold.
The people in the streets and bazars below, hearing
this novelty, gathered in crowds around the foot
of the minaret, at each of the usual hours of prayer,
till at last the whole town was in a commotion. It
was remarked, too, that each day he increased the
number of things prayed for ; till at last the most
religious part of the community was scandalised at
this unseemly exhibition. The man was accordingly
taken before the Cadi, and questioned as to his
conduct. He replied that it was perfectly orthodox :
the Koran had declared that whoever should pray,
even for temporal blessings, with a firm faith that
they would be granted, should obtain them. " Ask,
and ye shall receive ; persevere, and it shall be
granted to you." As a firm believer, therefore, in the
truth of this doctrine, he had asked at first for what
be actually needed, and no more. But perceiving that
the Prophet delayed the grant, he thought it might

AKD HIS PRAYERS. 311

arise from his too great humility in not trusting
sufficiently to the Divine bounty, and therefore he
went on gradually asking for more, being perfectly
satisfied that in the end he should obtain all he
wished. The Cadi said that the people generally
were scandalised at all this ; to which the Fakir re-
plied, it was because they were not true believers.
An offer was then made to him by some of the
wealthy merchants, that if he would desist from this
course, they would furnish him to the extent of his
first prayer at least. This he indignantly rejected ;
saying that by so doing he should call Mohammed
a false prophet, and brand himself as a liar ; because
he fully believed he should have all he had asked for,
and would not dishonour the bounty of the Prophet
by taking less. The Cadi grew angry at this rejec-
tion, and began to talk of the prison or the bastinado ;
when the Fakir, seeing the matter taking a turn he
little expected, agreed to accept the offer conditionally,
namely, that when he was provided with two suits
of garments, two well-caparisoned horses, two sets of
arms, two young and chaste wives, and two purses,
a certificate should be given that he had not com-
promised his claim from any doubt of its ultimate
realisation, but merely to meet the wishes of others
whose faith was not so strong as his own. The

X 4

312 SUCCESSFUL ISSUE.

bargain was struck ; the Fakir was supplied with the
stipulated articles, and returned to India, where he
would no doubt exalt both the Prophet and himself,
by declaring that his prayers, and faith, and per-
severance had obtained him these agreeable proofs
of Divine favour !

313

CHAP. XVIII.

V<jyage from Jedda by Loheia and Hodeida to Lloclia. — Hy-
drographical information acquired. — Arrival at INIoolia. —
Reception at the Residency. — Agreeable party of seven
English gentlemen. — Variety of topics of interest to each
individual. — Occupations and researches -while at Mocha. —
Letter to Mr. Burckhardt on the fate of Dr. Seetzen. — Lines
adapted to the air, " Go where Glory waits thee." — Pecu-
liarities at Mocha. — Head-dresses of the Samaulies. — Ab-
stinence from coffee, and substitute of ghasheb. — Anecdote of
an Indian Princess. — English tea. — Visit to the port of Aden.
— Letter to Mr. Forbes. — Call at the Arabian port of Macul-
lah. — Singular disease and deaths among the ci'ew. — Lifluence
of the Moon at sea. — Pythagoras and Moore. — Safe arrival
in the harbour of Bombay.

We left Jedda on the 14th of January, and proceeded
down the Red Sea on our way to Mocha ; and as we
had a considerable portion of contrary winds, we had
to stand across the sea from the Arabian to the Abys-
sinian coast, which afforded a favourable opportunity
for acquiring all the hydrographical knowledge I so
much desired. I profited by this to amass a large
quantity of materials, in bearings and distances of
capes and headlands, soundings on the coast, views of

314 AERIVAL AT MOCHA.

harbours, and observations of latitudes and longitudes
sufficient to fill an ordinary volume. There were
some incidents of general interest also on the voyage:
but these I pass over, and simply record that after
passing close to the two ports in the mountains near
which the genuine coffee of Arabia is grown, namely
Hodeida and Loheia, both to the northward of Mocha,
we reached this last-named place on the 2nd of
February 1815.

On landing, I repaired with Captain Boog to the
British Residency, and was there presented to the
East India Company's representative, Mr. Theodore
Forbes, of the Bombay Civil Service, by whom I was
most kindly received ; and though among my papers
lost by the storm, described in the previous chapter,
just before reaching Jedda, were my letters of intro-
duction to this gentleman from Colonel Missett, their
loss made no difference in the warmth of his hospita-
lity ; and I was invited to remain with him at the
Residency as long as our ship should remain in port.
At dinner, which was served in the Anglo-Indian
style, with abundance of excellent dishes, including
cu.rries of various kinds, cool claret wine, and hookahs
after the meal, a party of seven English gentlemen
met together, the greatest number of my countrymen
that I had seen at any one time since leaving Smyrna,

AGREEABLE PARTY OF ENGLISHMEN. 315

and a very unusual number for so remote a station
as Mocha. Among these were General Wilkinson,
late commander in chief of the army in Bombay, a
veteran King's officer, who had seen much service,
and whose simplicity of dress and manners were re-
markable for a man of his rank and position ; Captain
Blast, of the Indian Navy or Bombay Marine, com-
manding the Company's ship Mercury, bound for
Suez to convey General Wilkinson thus far ; the sur-
geon of the ship ; Mr. Aikin, the medical officer of
the Residency ; Mr. Forbes, Captain Boog, and my-
self. It was curious to observe, how the personal
interests of each directed the topics of our conversa-
tion. INIr. Forbes, being himself a diplomatist, was
most anxious to be informed of the latest news con-
nected with the politics of Europe, having received
no newspapers for many months ; General Wilkinson
was desirous of knowing everything comiected with
the mode of travelling across the Desert, and the
chances of conveyance from Alexandria to some port
of Europe. Captain Blast attached more importance
to the account I was enabled to give him of the winds,
tides, shoals, soundings, &c. on the upper part of the
Red Sea, which was new to him, and the dangers of
which had been much dv/elt upon by his brother
officers in Bombay. Dr. Aikin and the surgeon of

316 OCCUPATIONS AT MOCHA.

the Mercury were curious in their inquiries about tlie
plague, the season of its development and of its dis-
appearance, the remedies usually prescribed, and their
results ; while Captain Boog and myself were eager
to obtain from each and all of these the best informa-
tion they could give us of the state of commerce in
India, and the probable reception which any proposi-
tion for reviving the Egyptian trade would meet with
there. We sat up till long past midnight, and had a
day of the highest enjoyment.

Our stay at Mocha extended to the 10th of Febru-
ary ; and during this period every day was devoted
to excursions through the town and its neighbourhood,
including a visit to the Dola, or governor ; horses of
the purest Arab breed being placed at our disposal for
daily use. Much information was thus acquired
respecting the history and commerce of this part of
Arabia, the Yemen of the modern maps, and the
Arabia Felix, or Happy Arabia, of antiquity, — a dis-
tinction it well deserves, from its superior fertility and
the richness and variety of its products. But these
details cannot be dwelt on farther here. A letter of
mine to Mr. Burckhardt, of which I preserved a copy,
may, however, be transcribed from my Manuscript
Journal, as containing the information I promised to
obtain for him respecting the fate of Dr. Seetzen, the

LETTER TO MR. BURCKHARDT. 317

German traveller, and which I have reason to believe
is but little known in England. It is as follows : —

Mocha, February 9. 1815.

My dear Fkiend. — Short as our stay here has yet
been, it was among the first duties to which I devoted
myseh', after our arrival here, to execute as satisfactorily
as possible the wish you expressed to me on parting, re-
lative to the fate of Doctor Seetzen, of whose death I
have been unfortunately too successful in obtaining a de-
cided confirmation.

There is now at Mocha, a Doctor Aikin, attached to
the British Factory, in the service of the East India Com-
pany, who having been here upwards of five years, enjoyed
much intercourse with Doctor Seetzen during his short
repose here, and was in company with him on the even-
ing preceding liis departure from hence. It is from
this gentleman that I have received such particulars as
I have the unpleasant task of now communicating to you.

It appears, then, that this able and enterprising tra-
veller, after having completed the pilgrimage to Mecca,
and, like yourself, obtained the enviable distinction of a
Hadji, had traversed the greater part of the Hedjaz ; and
entering the Yemen, came through Sana and the other
principal towns to this extremity of Arabia, bringing
with him the spoils which his intrepidity alone had gained
him, in botanical, mineralogical, and other specimens of
natural history. Like the collection of Niebuhr, it had
scarcely entered the gates of Mocha, before it was seized
by the rapacious Dola, under the hope of its containing

318 LETTER TO MR. BURCKHARDT

immense treasures ; but finding himself miserably dis-
appointed in their apparent value, as if to avenge him-
self for it, by securing at least their loss to the proprietor,
he caused them all to be conveyed to the Imaum at Sana,
under a pretext of their being intended for the exercise
of magic and incantations ! They were accordingly con-
fiscated, and for ever lost to the owner of them, who
seemed only stimulated thereby to greater undertakings.

During Doctor Seetzen's stay at Mocha, he invariably
bore the character of a Mussulman Dervish, under the
name of Hadji Moosa ; nor does it appear that he was
known to any of the natives as an European, — his long
beard, general aspect, and proficiency in the Arabic lan-
guage occasioning him to pass unsuspected as a Moham-
medan of Syria. Nor did he ever visit the European
Factories ; although Captain Rudland, who had been in
Abyssinia with Mr. Salt, being then the East India
Company's agent here, paid him every attention ; his con-
stant residence, indeed, was in the common caravanserai
for travellers.

It was the general opinion of the best informed people at
Cairo who at all interested themselves on this head, that
Doctor Seetzen had met his death in Africa, in some war
among the negroes near Berbera ; but it is confidently as-
serted here that he did not cross over to the opposite
coast. After some stay at Mocha, wasted in ineffectual
endeavours to obtain a restoration of his seized speci-
mens, he formed the determination of re-visiting Sana in
person, and journeying from thence to the eastern ex-
tremity of the Peninsula of Arabia, to cross from Muscat

ON THE FATE OF DR. SEETZEN. 319

into Persia. For this purpose lie set out from hence in
the month of October, 1811, having Avith him a number
of camels (to the amount of fourteen, my informers
say,) laden with baggage, provisions, &c. He had not
quitted Mocha three days, however, before information
was received here of his sudden death near Tais, and the
consequent dispersion of all his property. No doubt
seems to be entertained even by the Arabs tliemsclves,
that he was poisoned by some agent of the Dola in his
party, with the connivance, or perhaps by the express
orders, of the Iraaum, to wrench from him the last mite
he possessed.

Beyond this, nothing further is positively known as to
the detail of his sufferings ; but the fact of his having
died a sudden and violent death seems unhappily to be
removed beyond all doubt. Before he quitted Mocha, he
confided to the care of Signor Benzoni, an Italian here,
all his valuable papers, journals, &c., which he had con-
gratulated himself on securing from the destroying grasp
of rapacious ignorance, to be forwarded by that gentle-
man through Egypt, to his distinguished patron, the Duke
of Saxe Gotha, in Europe. It fell, however, to the lot of
poor Benzoni himself to close his checquered existence
here; and the only manner in which he could acquit him-
self of his trust was to transfer the charge of his mur-
dered friend's discoveries to the Hindoo broker of the
East India Company, the chief of the Banians here, from
whom they were soon afterwards seized by the Dola, and
are now, I fear, for ever lost to the lovers of knowledge,
and the patrons of its extension, who would have doubt-

320 LETTER TO MR. BURCKIIARDT

less otherwise found in them information of the most
valuable and interesting nature.

Such, my dear Ibrahim, has been the unmerited,
though not I am sure unpitied, fate of one who, like your-
self, was engaged in the noblest of all pursuits, — the
acquisition of knowledge for the improvement and fur-
ther civilisation of mankind. In Major Rennell's ad-
mirable work, which I have sent you at your request,
you will find an apostrophe to the memory of those who
are thus the victims of an ardent thirst for information,
whicli will convey to you all the sensations to which my
own heart is alive upon the present occasion, and into
which I am sure yours will easily enter. May the path
which you have already formed the determination to
pui'sue, be less beset with dangers, and your passage
through it crowned with that success, which is indeed so
indisputably your due !

As I fear I shall not have time to write Signor M'Ardle
on this subject, although I faithfully promised him to do
so if possible, you will oblige me infinitely by communi-
cating the particulars of my letter to him, as he repre-
sents himself to be officially charged by the Duke of
Saxe Gotha and the Emperor of Germany, — Doctor
Seetzen's distinguished patrons, — to furnish the Coui't of
Vienna with the most accurate information he could ob-
tain relative to the fate of this martyred traveller. You
mentioned to me, also, if my memory does not mislead
me, before we parted at Jedda, your intention of trans-
mitting such accounts as I could collect on this head to
the Director of " Les Mines d'Orient," at that capital,
for insertion in that widely circulated work, as being a

ON THE FATE OF DR. SEETZEN. 321

channel througli which it would be conveyed to that cLnss
of readers chiefly who would feel an interest in the
event. Should you retain that intention, you are at per-
fect liberty to use my name as an authority on the occa-
sion ; thougli I could wish that it might undergo your
own arrangement as to the form in which it should be
transmitted, from my being so pressed at this moment as
scarcely to find time for a re-perusal before I seal it for
enclosure to you.

It is now past midnight, and I am engaged for a day-
light ride to-morrow, after which we return to breakfast
with General Wilkinson and Captain Blast, for whom 1
have yet some notes of introduction to write, and to
whose kindness I shall be indebted for the conveyance of
this, as they sail for Suez to-morrow morning. I cannot
close, however, without detaining myself for a moment
to assure you that you have been often the subject of our
evening conversations on board, during our passage down
the Sea, and that for myself, I have counted your daily
journies, and traced your progress across the sterile de-
serts of the Hedjaz, with an anxiety for your safety that
could only have been dictated by the warmest and most
sincere friendship. I suppose you to be at this moment
within the sacred enclosures of Medina, and imagine that
you will reach Egypt about the time of my disembark-
ation in India. But, my friend, however widely we may
be separated, it cannot in the least diminish either the
force or truth of my esteem.

Jas. S. Buckingham,

VOL. JI. Y

322 LINES TO MY WIFE.

By the same opportunity I addressed several letters
to friends in Egypt, Smyrna, Malta, and England;
and as I was now farther distant than I had ever be-
fore been in all my wanderings, from this land of my
home, where those I most fondly loved were, no doubt,
anxiously awaiting intelligence of my progress, my
communications to them were more copious than to
any others. In the one to my dear wife I enclosed
the following lines, adapted to one of her most fa-
vourite airs from Moore's Melodies, and as an answer
to that beautiful composition, which had been enclosed
to me in her last letter from home.

AIR — GO WHERE GLORY WAITS THEE.

I.

Fate may from thee tear me,
And o'er Ocean bear me,

Yet ril remember thee ;
Distant climes while ranging,
Still with love unchanging,

Oh ! I'll remember thee.
Hostile foes may press me,
Dangers sore distress me.
Yet if thou shalt bless me

With tried fidelity ;
Then, whate'er awaits me,
While that hope elates me.

Oh ! I'll remember thee.

LINES TO MY WIFE. 323

II.

At eve, in silence musing,
Heaven's bright vault perusing,

Then I'll remember thee.
The star thou lovest blazing,
On its radiance gazing,

Oh ! I'll remember thee :
Should its rays, wide streaming,
On thy couch be beaming,
And thou perchance be dreaming

In that hour of me,
The thought vv^ith bliss will fire me,
And while joys inspire me,

Oh ! I'll remember thee.

m.

When my eyelids closing
Sink in sleep reposing,

I'll still remember thee ;
Borne in dewy slumbers
To the spheric numbers,

There I'll remember thee ;
'Mid their mystic wheeling.
While o'er every feeling,
Music's powers are stealing

In heavenly harmony ;
Then shall Memory bring me
Strains thou used to sing me.

And I'll remember thee.

T 2

324 THE SAMAULIES.

I may add two peculiarities of Mocha which struck
me as unexpected novelties at the time. One is this.
The Samaulies, as they are called, who visit Mocha
from the Abyssinian coast opposite Bab-el-Mandeb,
are a fine race of Africans, jet-black in colour, but of
beautiful muscular development, equal to anything
seen in the Greek statues of the best times, rarely
under six feet in height ; and with arms, legs, and
ample chests befitting the character of Hercules
rather than of Apollo. Their features, like those of
Abyssinians generally, are not flat, nor their lips thick
and protruding like those of the negroes ; while the
facial angle is as acute as that of the European. Their
hair is not woolly, but full and bushy, unlike the lank
black hair of the Indian races ; and this hair, with a
taste more singular than admirable, they contrive to
have cut so as to stand like an inverted pyramid on
the crown of the head, it being supported in that state
by wooden skewers serving as props, by the common
people, and ivory or silver ones among the chiefs.
This mass of hair, thus unnaturally cut into so pre-
posterous a shape, like the evergreen trees in some
country gardens in England, clipped into the forms
of cocks and hens, and other grotesque shapes, is
also thickly plastered with grease, for pomatum, and
powdered with white lime dust iiistead of flour. All

THE SAMAULIES. 325

this seemed supremely barbarous and ridiculous at
first view, till checked by the reflection that the time
is not very remote when a tax on hair-powder was
very productive in England, and that even now arti-
ficial wigs are worn by the Speaker of the House of
Commons, and the Judges in full costume, made of
horse- hair, and having no resemblance whatever to
any natural head of hair ; while the livery servants of
the great are still plastered and powdered, as the
common soldiers of our army once were to their in-
*finite disgust and torture, when pipe -clayed breeches
dried on their thighs, belts and stocks impeded their
free breathing, and clubs and queus were so tightly
fastened behind their heads as to make it difficult to
turn more than an inch in any direction : these recol-
lections made me think that the Samaulies were not
so uncivilised and barbarous, after all.

The other peculiarity I noticed at Mocha was
this : though it is the chief port for the shipment of
coffee, this berry is not grown there, but produced in
the mountains near Hodeida and Loheia, more than
a hundred miles oiF; and further, none of the in-
habitants of Mocha drink the roasted and pounded
berry which constitutes our coffee at all. Large
quantities are shipped for India, America, and Egypt,
by way of Suez, it being preferred by the Turks, not

r 3

326 THE FORCE OF HABIT.

only on account of its superiority, but because it
comes from the Holy Land of their Prophet. But
none is consumed in Mocha, where the people think
it heating, irritating, and unwholesome. The drink
they use instead is a decoction of the outer thin shell
or husk in which the coffee-berry is enclosed. This
they called Ghasheh ; and when some was presented to
us at the interview with the governor, and we were
led to expect something extremely agreeable, as an
Arabian sherbet, I was disgusted beyond measure
Avith the taste and smell of this Mocha dainty jg
which resembled, more nearly than anything I can
remember, a mixture of glauber's salts and senna
tea, of a lukewarm temperature.

To show the force of habit, however, in reconciling
people to the most revolting things, as caviare to the
Russians, putrid raw fish to the Kamschatkans, and
tobacco to all races of men, who persevere, through
sickness and nausea, till they conquer their first
disgust at it, I may mention the following anecdote :
There was on board the Suffenut-ul-Russool, as
passenger, an Indian Nawaub, or prince, with his
family and suite, who had been on the pilgrimage to
Mecca, and were now returning home. The favourite
female of the harem, the youngest and handsomest,
it was said, of the whole party, was dreadfully sea-

THE FORCE OF HABIT. 327

sick ; and as all the Orientals have a very lofty idea
of the medical skill of Europeans, I was consulted
as to the proper remedy. I thought it a good oppor-
tunity to see the lady, if possible, and said that no
prescription could be safely given, without feeling
her pulse, seeing her tongue, and examining the con-
dition of her eyes. This was thought perfectly
inadmissible, and was refused. She became gradually
worse ; and at length, after various excuses and con-
trivances to elude a complete exposure of her face,
^by putting her arm through a curtain, and showing
her tongue and her eyes only through holes in a
thick veil, all of which were declared to be insuf-
ficient, her whole face and person was shown, and her
claims to great beauty, notwithstanding the unfavour-
able circumstances in which she was then placed,
could not be questioned. As to the prescription,
seeino; that there was nothincr the matter but the
ordinary sickness of the sea, which I knew of no
medicine that would cure, I prescribed a hot cup
of tea. We had on board some exquisite tea from
Canton, called " The Emperor's bloom," composed,
it was said, of the first pickings of the early shoots of
the tea-tree, and never used, therefore, in commerce,
but obtained as presents only ; there was also white
sugar candy, and fresh goat's-milk, to complete the

Y 4

328 BEAT THROUGH THE

preparation. Such a cup of tea many a dowager in
England would go a long way to procure ; and when
I tasted it, to satisfy her scruples, previous to the lady
taking it herself, I thought it the most delicious tea I
had ever drunk. She put it to her mouth with an
evident expectation of pleasure from the draught,
but my own disgust at the Dolah's Ghaslieh was not
more complete than that of this Indian princess at
the tea ; for, in a paroxysm of rage, and an expres-
sion of horror which I could never have thought so
beautiful a face could ever be made to wear, she
flung cup, saucer, and spoon on the deck, and asked
me whether I meant to poison her with so revolting
a mixture as that ! After this, one may well admit
the truth of the adage — " There is no disputing
matters of taste."

On the 10th of February we left Mocha, deter-
mined to make an experiment which all deemed ha-
zardous, and many thought desperate, — namely, that
of beating through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb with
a contrary wind. We had a good ship, that stood
well under her canvas, sailed fairly for a merchant
vessel, and answered her helm quickly. The captain
and officers were thorough-bred seamen ; the lascars
or Indians expert in their evolutions, and sufficiently
numerous; and by a bold attempt, and constant

STRAITS OF BAB-EL-MANDEB. 329

vigilance, we completely succeeded. As we took the
narrowest passage on the eastern side, between Perim
Island and the Arabian shore, to avoid the set of the
current towards the Abyssinian coast, our reaches on
each tack were sometimes less than a quarter of a
mile, so that we had scarcely got full way on the
vessel, and all sails trimmed on one tack, before it
became necessary to go about again on the other;
and if we had once missed stays, we had little or no
room either to ware or to fill again, so that we ran
great risk of going on the rocks. It was a time of
breathless anxiety ; but when we got through we
gave relief to our feelings by a loud and general
cheer.

At length we reached the port of Aden, a perfect
furnace of heat, even in this winter season, and like
the scorched crater of a volcano in its blackened rocks
all around. It was a port of great celebrity in the
middle ages, when the Venetians traded to India by
this route, before the discovery of the passage round
the Cape of Good Hope, and is now in the possession
of the English as a station for the steamers between
Suez and Bombay. We landed for a few hours, but
found little to interest us ; and from thence I ad-
dressed a letter to Mr. Theodore Forbes at Mocha,
which, as it gives a faithful account of my feelings

330 LETTEK TO MR. FORBES

and occupations at the time, may be here tran-
scribed : —

Aden, in Arabia, February 22. 1815.

My dear Sill. — Whether it be that one is anxious to
avoid the opprobrium of ingratitude as one of the foulest
stains upon the moral character, or that one's conscious-
ness of the general indifference of mankind to their bene-
factors, suggests the fear of being one's self subject to so
frequently justifiable a suspicion, I know not, — but ever
since I quitted your hospitable roof, I have felt an im-
patience, Avhich I would fain attribute to purer causes
than those premised, to seize the earliest occasion which
might present itself of assuring you how truly sensible I
am of the obligations which I owe to your kind interest
in the fate of a humble individual known to you only by
self-introduction, and bringing to you no other recom-
mendation than his poverty, his disappointments, and his
wants. It is not, like many of our other aphorisms are,
a sentence void of meaning, to say that " Generous ac-
tions carry in themselves their own rewax'd." My own
heart has more than once confirmed to me its truth, and
yours, I doubt not, often yields to you the most agreeable
recollections. May they continue to throw a charm over
the latest moments of your life !

Our passage through the Straits was not without its
difficulties ; but we have fully proved its practicability
against a contrary monsoon, with a good ship and attentive
management. The tides afforded us essential assistance
in getting through, and we have found their influences to

FROM ADEN. 331

prevail with some slight variations all along the shore to
Aden. ]\Ir. Bruce's inaccurate descriptions of Bab-el-
Mandcb, Perim Island, and the neighbourhood, are cer-
tainly the most decisive evidences of his never having
visited the spot ; since a person writing even from me-
mory, could never fall into such gross misrepresentations ;
yet he repeatedly asserts that it was his constant prac-
tice to write his observations on the spot for the purpose
of ensuring their fidelity. Lord Valentia has not, there-
fore, accused him of falsehood in this instance, as well as
in many others, without great reason.

We have yet the prospect of a long voyage before us
from the prevalence of the easterly winds, and nothing
but the continuity of my occupation on board could pre-
vent its being a weary one. As it is, however, some sad
moments will intervene to disturb the tranquillity of my
mind amidst its labours, by recalling to my imagination
the images of my distant, and perhaps suffering, family,
and contrasting it with the procrastination of my hopes
from day to day, and the uncertainty of their being even
at last accomplished. It is to chase reflection, and to
banish from me as far as possible ideas so full of gloom,
that almost every moment of the day has its peculiar por-
tion of employment allotted to it and even when on deck,
to take the necessary exercise for health, my attention is
amply occupied with such particulars as may tend to
facilitate the future navigation of this coast.

It is thus that rising at daylight, my morning hours
are devoted to the study of the Hindoostanee language,
under the tuition of a young East Indian lad on board, in
which I derive considerable assistance fi'om the excellent

332 LETTER TO MR. FORBES.

Grammar and Dictionary of Gilchrist, witli which jou
obligingly furnished me for that purpose, as well as from
what previous knowledge of Arabic I possessed, that lan-
guage and Persian seeming to enter largely into the com-
position of it. The day, from breakfast until dinner, is
not more than barely sufficient for that attention to the
navigation of the coast and other general remarks on our
voyage, which the subject not only of itself deserves, but
which under my peculiar prospects devolves upon me as
a duty. A sunset walk succeeds, and as the Nawaub is
always of our party, we Avear away the evening by a
game at chess.

Such, my dear Sir, is the epitome of my occupations
at sea. When they are relieved, as they are now, by an
occasional visit to the shore, it yields me a gratification
in wliich I forget for a moment all my sorrows ; and in
the present instance it is rendered still higlier by its
offering to me an opportunity to assure you of my gra-
titude.

Jas. S. Buckingham.

On leaving Aden, our passage along the southern
coast of Arabia was slow and tedious, owing to the
great prevalence of easterly winds, and the set of a
strong current in a westerly direction. We experi-
enced now and then, when the land wind blew off the
shore, soon after sunrise, the refreshing odours of

" those spicy gales

That blow from Araby the blest ; "

ARRIVE AT MACULLAII. 333

tlie morning clew being evaporated by the early
warmth of the sun, and so diffused through the whole
atmosphere that it becomes "redolent of balm," and
like Lebanon, as described by Solomon in the Can-
ticles, " puts forth a goodly smell." But generally
speaking, the mountains near the coast are barren,
and the chief fertility is in the valleys of the in-
terior. We found Horsburgh's Directory of the
Indian Seas more accurate than any other authority
for this coast ; and passing several of its smaller
ports, we arrived at Macullah on the 5th of March.

We went on shore, were introduced to the gover-
nor by some Indian Banians or merchants there, who
had commercial relations with Bombay, saw all the
town and its inhabitants, learnt a great deal connected
with the trade of this part of Arabia, and of the con-
dition of the tribes in the interior, as well as of the
piracies committed by the Joassamees and Wahabees
along the coast. After filling up our supply of water,
and getting some fresh provisions, we sailed from
hence for Bombay. In the course of this latter por-
tion of our voyage, a singular disease broke out
amongst the Indian lascars composing the crew. It
commenced with the swelling of the legs, passing
gradually upward by the thighs to the trunk, and
then invading the arms, neck, and head ; it was not

334 LASCARS ATTACKED BY DISEASE.

attended witli any acute pain, but rendered its
victims stiff and incapable of action. It invariably
ended in the death of those attacked, after a course
of six or seven days, and was confined exclusively to
the Indians, no European being affected by it. We
buried in the deep no less than sixteen men in about
as many days, from this singular affection ; and when
we reached Bombay, we learnt from the maritime
and medical men there, that this was a disease well
known in East India ships. It -was pretty well as-
certained that it arose from the want of the stimulants,
in the shape of curry powder, pepper, and spices, of
which the Indians use so much in their cooking, and
which, in our case, had all been exhausted soon after
leaving Mocha; and as fresh vegetables and fruits,
with lime juice and acids, appear to be the most effec-
tive remedy for scurvy, which in olden times carried
hundreds of seamen to premature graves, so it appears
that stimulating condiments for those who live chiefly
on rice, and rarely take animal food, as is the case
with lascars or Indian sailors, is the best preservative
against this gradual swelling which ends in speedy
death.

I have often had occasion to remark on the intense
interest with which a brilliant moon is regarded
during the profound stillness of the night, in the

moore's lines to the moon. 33t>

midwatcli, when all around is silent, and the sea a
glassy calm, reflecting on its boundless surface all the
glory of the heavens above. We had several such
nights on our passage across the Arabian Sea ; and
the feeling that loved ones at a distance would bo
gazing on the same brilliant orb, within a few hours
after it had passed its meridian here, naturally in-
spired the wish to be able to write on its surface some
lines of affectionate assurance, that they were remem-
bered, and to receive back a similar report of their
own feelings tow^ards us. Pythagoras was thought
by the ancients to possess a magic mirror, by which
he could inscribe on the surface of the moon his
thoughts and feelings to be conveyed to distant lands,
which is thus beautifully alluded to by Moore in his
Epistle to Lord Strangford, written off the Azores, in
the Atlantic Ocean, on his voyage to Bermuda.

" Sweet Moon ! if, like Crotona's sage,
By any spell my hand could dare
To make thy disk its ample page,

And write my thoughts, my wishes there,
How many a friend, whose careless eye
Now wanders o'er that starry sky,
Should smile, upon thy orb to meet
The recollection kind and sweef,

336 REACH BOMBAY.

The reveries of fond regret,

The promise never to forget,

And all my heart and soul would send

To many a dear loved distant friend."

The feeling has no doubt been experienced by thou-
sands ; but poetic genius has here embodied it in a
form which will find an echo in every heart that has
ever crossed the Desert, or traversed the Ocean ; for
it is in these vast solitudes of Nature that the moon
exerts her greatest influence, and becomes, if not the
object of adoration, at least the magnet of attraction,
and the chief glory of the scene.

We did not reacli Bombay till the 6th of April, hav-
ing left Mocha on the 13th of February, — a voyage,
therefore, of six weeks_ which is now sufficient to
complete the double voyage from Bombay to Suez,
and Alexandria to Southampton, by the steamers
used on this Red Sea and Mediterranean route ; —
and no fact can place the advantage of the change in
a more prominent point of view than this.

337

CHAP. XIX.

Entrance to the noble harbour of Bombay.— Inquiries of Com-
mercial Houses and their results. — Private acquaintances
speedily formed. — Domesticated with intelligent and agree-
able friends. — Competition of Hindoo and Chinese agricul-
turists.— Remarkable English women in Bombay. — Hospi-
tality and gaieties of general society. — Excursions to the
Cavern Temples of the Hindoos.— Caves of Elephanta, Carli,
and Kenneri. — Basaltic pillars. — Geological Explorers. —
Adventures with Tigers in the Island of Salsette. — Lines
addressed to my Wife Avith the rose-dew of Egypt.

The entrance to Bombay is very imposing. On the
right or south side of the passage, is the continent
of India ; and in the background, trending away to
the north-east, rise the noble hills called the Ghauts,
which form the buttresses or bulwarks of the hisher
land beyond them. On the left is the small low
island of Colabah, with its light-house, closely con-
nected with the nearly level island of Bombay, and
this again joined by a causeway to the larger and
more hilly island of Salsette. The ample expanse
of water between these islands on the left, and the
Mahratta coast on the right, presents a harbour
capacious enough to shelter the whole navy of
VOL. II. Z

338 NOBLE HAEBOUR OF BOMBAY.

England, while the several smaller islands dotting
its surface, including that of Elephanta with its
celebrated Cave Temple, form objects of picturesque
beauty, and afford good shelter as breakwaters
against the strongest gales. The soundings are of
convenient depths, the holding ground good ; and
the strong ebb and flood tides, rising eighteen and
twenty feet perpendicular, facilitate the entrance and
exit of ships in all winds and all weathers. No
harbour in the world, perhaps, is better entitled
than this to the original name given it by its first
European possessors, the Portuguese, of " Bon Baia,"
or Good Bay, from whence the present name of
Bombay is formed.

Anchorino; amono; the laro;e Indiamen and China
ships here assembled, we soon after landed at the Fort-
stairs ; and as there were at that time no hotels or
even boarding houses for Europeans, though many of
each kind now exist, I repaired with Captain Boog to
the bungalow taken for him by his agent, and re-
mained there a day or two till I had made my calls.

Bemembering the names of the houses of business,
as well as private individuals, to which I had received
letters of introduction from Egypt (the originals of
which were all lost by the capsising of our vessel in
the Red Sea), I called on these first, and was delighted
to find that duplicates of the letters had been for-

MAKE CALLS ON THE MERCHANTS. 339

warded to them from Egypt overland, by Aleppo,
Bagdad, and Bussorali, in tlie Persian Gulf, so that
my reception was most cordial from each, especially
from Mr. Leckie, a wealthy merchant, just then about
to return to Europe with a large fortune, but still
retaining an interest in the concern of which he had
been for many years the head, — from Mr. Remington,
Mr. Crawford, and Mr. Stephenson, of the house of
Remington and Co., — from Mr. John Stewart and
Mr. William Ashburner, the managing partners of
the house of Forbes and Co., and several others.

My first business with all these was that of in-
ducing them to enter on the trade with Egypt by the
Red Sea ; but I found, in every instance, so great a
distrust in the good faith of Mohammed Ali Pasha,
whose antecedents were certainly anything but en-
couraging, that, though all were of opinion that such
a trade would be extremely profitable, if reliance
could be placed on the honesty and moderation of the
ruler of Egypt, none were inclined to risk an ex-
pedition in that direction till these doubts were re-
moved.

I next delivered my letters to private individuals

of the Civil Service, furnished me by Mr. Theodore

Forbes of Mocha ; and the issue of these was more

fortunate. One of them was to Mr. William Erskine,

z 2

340 DOMESTICATED WITH

wlio filled the office of Judge in one of the Courts of
Law in Bombay. This gentleman had come out to
India with Sir James Mackintosh, when he received
the appointment of Recorder, and subsequently mar-
ried one of Sir James's daughters. Mr. Erskine, who
followed the profession of the law in Edinburgh
as Writer to the Signet before he came to India,
was one of the original founders of the Edinburgh
Revieiii, with Brougham, Jeffrey, Horner, and Sidney
Smith ; and enjoyed, therefore, a high reputation in
Bombay. By this gentleman I was most cordially
received, and invited to take up my abode with him
at Mazagong, one of the suburbs of the town.

Nothing could be more fortunate for me than this
first step, as it brought me almost immediately into
personal intercourse with the elite of Bombay society
— a privilege extremely difficult to obtain in India,
where the Civil Service constitutes a caste of aris-
tocracy, within whose barriers the military officers
are only sparingly admitted, except those of the
highest rank, merchants only of the first class, and
merchant-captains and traders never. On repairing
to the house and taking up my quarters in the apart-
ments assigned to me, Ave met at dinner at the usual
hour of seven o'clock ; and though our first party
consisted only of the inmates of the house, who lived

AGREEABLE FRIENDS. 341

together under one roof, though not connected by
anj ties of relationship, but allied by taste, senti-
ment, and friendly feeling, they were all men of
mark, from their learning, ability, and courtesy.
Mr. Erskine, the senior, was about forty, full of in-
formation on every subject connected with the philo-
sophy and literature of Europe, besides being a good
Oriental scholar, and occupying his leisure in writing
papers of great ability for the Transactions of the
Bombay Literary Society, as well as in translating
from the Turki language, through the medium of
Persian, the original and remarkable History, or
rather Autobiography, of the Emperor Baber, the
first of the Moguls who conquered Hindoostan, who
was born a.d. 1456, — one of the most faithful pictures
of Oriental life, perhaps, ever presented to the Eu-
ropean world. It was subsequently published by
Longman and Co., of London, as a quarto volume,
in 1826. The early portion of the work had been
translated by Dr. Leyden, also a great Orientalist,
and friend and countryman of Mr. Erskine, who met
a premature death in Java ; but the latter portion
was completed by this gentleman. It Avas appro-
priately dedicated to the Honourable Mount Stuart
Elphinstone, then the British Resident at the Court
of Poona, and sent from Bombay for publication in

z 3

342 EMINENT ENGLISHMEN

April 1816^ just a year after my first visit to Bombay,
though not published till 1826; owing, no doubt, to
the difficulty of getting any English publisher to
undertake such a work, though a more interesting
one does not exist in the English lanfjua^e. Mr.
Erskine was, as may be readily supposed, one of the
most agreeable of companions ; and I may truly say,
I have never met, before or since, with any man
presenting so remarkable a union of extensive and
varied information, the most pleasing mode of com-
municating it, and the utmost degree of humility and
modesty in his bearing towards all who were his in-
feriors in this respect.

The other gentlemen of the household were Mr.
Wedderburn, from Edinburgh, who filled the office
of Paymaster General ; a person also of extensive
reading, most liberal views, and pleasing manners,
with a degree of generosity that scarcely knew any
bounds. Mr. Henderson, also from Scotland, one of
the assistant secretaries to Government, more reserved
in utterance, but speaking always wisely and to the
purpose ; and Mr. Elliott, the youngest of the party,
related, I believe, to the Minto family, of joyous tem-
perament, buoyant spirits, infinite good nature, and
exuberant gaiety. To me, who had so long been
deprived of the pleasures of general society, this was

RESIDING AT BOMBAY. 343

almost ca perfect elysium, wanting, indeed, only the
charm of female presence and attractions to make it
completely so. As time passed on, however, the
sphere of my acquaintance gradually widened ; for
almost every day I was either taken to be introduced
to some family, or persons called to pay their re-
spects to me. Among the most remarkable of these
were Mr. Macklin, the Attorney-general, an Irish-
man, all heart, eloquence, and enthusiasm ; Mr. Luke
Ashburner and his accomplished wife, from Salsette ;
Dr. Scott, the head of the medical board, and his
scientific lady; Mr. Warden, the chief secretary to
Government, and his fashionable and agreeable
partner ; Colonels Protheroe and Baker of the Bom-
bay army ; Captain Dickinson of the Engineers,
from Salsette, with his charming family ; Mr. and
Mrs. John Stewart, of Forbes and Co., who gave
the most agreeable parties at their villa, near Ma-
labar Point; and from these leading stars, as they
might be called, of the fashionable world, to other
less eminent, but not less agreeable circles.

Among some of my most vivid recollections of
Bombay life at this period, a few deserve selection
for record here. Mr. Luke Ashburner was a man of
independent fortune, not in the service of the East
Lidia Company, deeply impressed with the injustice

z 4

34.4 CHINESE AND HINDOO AGRICULTURISTS.

and absurdity of its monopoly, and anxious, as far as
his means admitted, to improve the cultivation of
India, for which purpose he had taken estates in the
island of Salsette. As an experiment, by which to
compare the labour of the Chinese and the Hindoos
in agriculture, he had procured from Canton a body
of Chinese peasants, thoroughly acquainted with all
the processes of husbandry in their own country ;
and of these he formed a separate colony in Salsette,
giving them charge of a certain tract of land on
which to cultivate rice, sugar, and cotton, after their
own mode. On a neighbouring estate he planted a
similar number of Hindoos, to follow their usual
course ; and he made their wages to depend on the
success of their separate experiments, of which they
were indeed to reap a portion of the benefit, on the
principle of co-operative labour. I saw both these
colonies, and visited them frequently. Each was
well provided with everything necessary for their
experiment and for their comfort. But the result
was, that the superior sagacity, energy, and industry
of the Chinese were manifest in all their operations ;
while the habitual tardiness of the Hindoos, with the
large abstraction from their time for religious festi-
vals and daily ceremonies in their pagodas, left them
greatly in the rear. Mr. Ashburner met, however.

MK. AND MRS. ASHBURNER. 345

with so many obstructions to liis benevolent plans
from the East India Company's government, who
wished to discourage colonisation in every shape,
that on the death of his wife he ultimately gave up
his estates and went to America, where he resided
many years at Stockbridge, with the Sedgewicks, so
well known for their literary fame in the United
States, and where he ended his days a few years ago.
Mrs. Luke Ashburner was a remarkable woman.
She was the daughter of a Unitarian minister in
Norfolk, named Morgan ; and, excepting perhaps her
brother, who was settled as an attorney in Bombay,
was the only Unitarian in all the English society
there ; so that she was avoided by some as without
the pale of Christianity ; but her fine Roman beauty
and dignity, her almost angelic benevolence, and her
superior talents, drew around her the choice spirits of
both sexes. When Mr. Erskine wrote his elaborate
and learned Essay on the Caves of Elephanta, for
the Bombay Literary Society, Mrs. Ashburner was
the only artist that could be found to furnish the
illustrations, which she did in a series of beautiful
drawings of all the principal groups of sculpture in
the interior, to which she devoted some months with
a zeal that was untiring, and these drawings were
engraved for the Transactions of that learned body.

346 MRS. STEWAKT.

Mrs. Stewart, too, the wife of the chief member of
the Medical Board, was another of the remarkable
women of Bombay. It had long been matter of
dispute whether the Arabs were the original in-
ventors or discoverers of Algebra, which seems to be
an Arabic name ; or whether it was known to any
Eastern nations from w^iom the Arabs might have
borrowed it. A recent discovery had revived this
question, and seemed to fix the discovery or inven-
tion on the Hindoos. In one of the libraries of
Benares, attached to a very ancient observatory,
founded there many centuries ago, was found an
original Treatise on Algebra, in the Sanscrit lan-
guage. The most eminent Sanscrit scholar then in
Bombay was Dr. Taylor, who was afterwards the
Company's resident at Bussorah ; but though he was
competent to translate the Sanscrit text, he was
w^holly ignorant of mathematics and algebra, and was
consequently incompetent to do the work justice.
In this dilemma, Mrs. Stewart, who was a good
Sancrit scholar and a first-rate mathematician, gave
her assistance to the learned Doctor, and through
their joint efforts the work was translated complete.
I may add that Dr. Stewart had fitted up, at great
expense, on the roof of his own house, an observatory
for his wife's amusement ; and her astronomical ob-

GAIETY OF LIFE AT BOMBAY. 347

servations made through this medium were transmit-
ted to the astronomer rojal in England, and thought
worthy of his use and thanks.

The dinners, balls, and concerts it were endless to
recite. It seemed to me that with all the complaints
of exile from home, and heat, and mosquitoes, and
many other grievances, great and small, which one
occasionally heard from some querulous complainer
in every party, there was no place under the sun
that I had ever yet visited, where the art of enjoying
the present was so fully understood and practised as it
was here ; and though the Bombay civil and military
servants were continually complaining of the higher
pay and allowances enjoyed by those of Bengal, their
really greatest misfortune was that they were so well
paid as to be presented with few inducements to
economy, and lived " too fast " either for their health
or their early retirement from the service ; the
youngest writers and cadets keeping their palanquins,
bearers, gigs, saddle horses, and servants, on a scale
of lOOOZ. a year, while receiving perhaps salaries of
5001. or 600^., and thinking nothing of being 4000?.
or 5000?. in debt in the first few years of their ser-
vice. The pale ale and cool claret consumed at
dinner and supper would surprise most Europeans ;

348 CAVES OF ELEPHANTA, KENNERI AND CARLI.

while the champagne drank at public balls and private
parties seemed to have no limits.

During my stay in Bombay I made several ex-
cursions to places of considerable interest in the
neighbourhood, especially to the Cave of Elephanta,
in the harbour of Bombay, which is one of the won-
ders of the eastern world, though still I believe
greatly inferior in extent and richness of sculpture
to the caves of Ellora in the interior. I visited also
the caves of Kenneri and Carli, in the island of
Salsette ; the two latter being regarded as Boodhist
works, while the former is held to be Brahminical.
Another very agreeable excursion was to the north-
west extremity of the island of Salsette, where there
are clusters of basaltic pillars, scarcely inferior in size
and number to the Giants' Causeway in Ireland, and
the cave of Fingal in the island of Staffa, in Scotland.
These visits were rendered all the more agreeable from
the party accompanying me containing many excel-
lent geologists, who came armed with hammers and
chisels for striking off specimens, and servants with
strong bags to convey them. On all sides were heard
debates about the respective theories of Werner, the
Neptunist, as he was called, because he attributed
most of the geological formations to the agency of
water; and of Hutton, the Vulcanist, as he was

TnE BABINGTONS. 349

named, because lie thought the element of fire had
been most potent. Primitive rocks, igneous forma-
tions, primary, secondary, and tertiary deposits, mica,
feldspar and hornblende, greywacke, schist, oolite,
lias, cleavage, dip to the horizon, cropping out, and
other phrases peculiar to the science, were in their
mouths as " household words," and they seemed to
revel in their enjoyment. The fact is, geology was
just then in high fashion ; and the passion for it had
been greatly fed by a recent visit of Captain Basil
Hall, of the Navy, whose father. Sir James Hall,
was an eminent geologist ; and the Edlnhurgli Re-
view, the great oracle of taste here, had contributed
largely to encourage the study of the earth's crust,
its composition, and the changes to which it had been
subject. Mr. Stephen Babington, one of the Bom-
bay Civil servants, universally beloved and esteemed,
and his brother Benjamin, of the Madras Civil Ser-
vice here, on his way to England — sons of Dr.
Babington of London, for many years Professor of
Mineralogy at Guy's Hospital — were always of these
parties, and contributed much, by their superior in-
telligence and ao-reeable manners, to render them
delightful. Mr. Stephen Babington subsequently
lost his life while endeavouring to rescue some
victims from a fire in Bombay, and a statue was

350 PARTY AT CAPTAIN DICKINSON'S.

reared, hy public subscription, to bis memory. Mr.
Benjamin Babington soon after became the com-
panion of my voyage to Egypt, as will be shown in
the sequel ; and is now the well-known Dr. Babing-
ton of London, Curator of the Royal College of
Physicians, enjoying in an unusual degree the esteem
and respect of the medical profession, and I may add
with pride,-a fast and faithful friend of mine of now
forty years' standing.

Among the personal adventures which happened to
me in Bombay, two or three may be selected from a
multitude, to be given here. On one occasion I went
to dine and pass the evening with Captain Dickinson,
of the Bombay Engineers, in Salsette. The house in
which he resided at Gora Bunder, on the narrow arm
of the sea, which divides Salsette from the Mahratta
coast, had been a Catholic convent in the time of the
Portuguese dominion. It was seated on an elevated
rock, for the double enjoyment of pure and cool air
and a fine prospect, and evinced the good taste of its
founders. The ascent to it was by a long flight of
steps cut in the steep sides of the rock itself. After
dinner, the company retired to the drawing room for
music ; and whether the sweet sounds of the voices
and instruments combined, or the glare of light from
the doors and windows, all of which were opened for

UNWELCOME TIGER VISITORS. 351

air in the usual Indian fashion, or whether the scent
of so much flesh and blood congregated in a small
space, formed the chief attraction, we could not of
course decide ; but, just as some of the party had
commenced a vocal quartett, the ayah, or Indian
nurse, came running in with the greatest affright,
dragging a little child after her, and exclaiming, "A
tiger on the steps ! a tiger on the steps ! " On rush-
ing to the outer door, two immense tigers were seen
stealthily creeping up the flight of steps with noise-
less feet and crouching bodies ; and we were only
just in time to slam the glass-door in the very face
of one, who, in a moment more of time, would have
had some victim in his jaws, carrying him or her off
in triumph, as young Hector Munro was seized by a
tiger, while in a picnic party at the Island of Saugor,
and killed before the very eyes of his companions.
It caused a chill and shudder to run through all the
party ; and it was not till the tigers had both disap-
peared that harmony was restored.

A still narrower escape for myself individually
happened on another occasion, not long after this. I
had gone to dine in Salsette with Colonel Hunt, the
governor of the Fort of Tannah, about seven or eight
miles from Bombay ; and as I had an appointment at
home in the morning, and the night was remarkably

352 PERILOUS ADVENTURE WITH A TIGER.

fine, with a brilliant moonlight, I declined the hos-
pitable invitation of my host and hostess to remain
with them during the night ; and ordering my pa-
lanquin to be ready at ten o'plock, I left Tannah at
that hour for Bombay. Great portion of the way
was over a level plain of some extent ; and while we
were in the midst of this, the bearers, of whom there
were eight, four to carry, and four for a relay, with
two mussauljees, or lantern-bearers, who carry their
lights in the moonlight as well as in the dark, as a
matter of etiquette which it is thought disrespectful
to omit — in short, the whole party of ten in an in-
stant disappeared, scattering themselves in all direc-
tions, and each running at his utmost speed. I was
perfectly astonished at this sudden halt, and wholly
unable to conjecture its cause, and all my calling and
remonstrance was in vain. In casting my eyes be-
hind the palanquin, however, I saw, to my horror and
dismay, a huge tiger, in full career towards me, with
his tail almost perpendicular, and with a growl that
indicated too distinctly the intense satisfaction with
which he anticipated a savoury morsel for his hunger.
There was not a moment to lose, or even to deliber-
ate. To get out of the palanquin, and try to escape,
would be running into the jaws of certain death. To
remain within was the only alternative. The palan-

PERILOUS ADVENTURE WITH A TIGER. 353

quin is an oblong chest or box, about six feet long,
two feet broad, and two feet high. It has four short
legs for resting it on the ground, three or four inches
only above the soil. Its bottom and sides are flat, and
its top is gently convex to carry oflp the rain. By a pole
projecting from the centre of each end, the bearers
carry it on their shoulders, and the occupant lies
stretched along upon a thin mattress on an open cane
bottom, like a couch or bed, with a pillow beneath
his head. The mode of enterinoj and leavino- the
palanquin is through a square opening in each side,
which, when the sun or rain requires it, may be
closed by a sliding door ; this is usually composed
of Venetian blinds to allow light and air, in a wooden
frame, and may be fastened, if needed, by a small
brass hook and eye. Everything about the palan-
quin, however, is made as light as possible, to lessen
the labour of the bearers ; and there is no part of the
panelling or sides more than half an inch thick, if
so much.

All I could do, therefore, was, in the shortest pos-
sible space of time to close the two sliding doors, and
lie along on my back. I had often heard that if you
can suspend your breath, and put on the semblance
of being dead, the most ferocious of wild beasts

VOL. II. A A

354 PERILOUS ADVENTUEE WITH A TIGER.

will leave you. I attempted this, by holding my
breath as long as possible, and remaining as still as a
recumbent statue. But I found it of no avail.
The doors were hardly closed before the tiger was
close alongside, and his smelling and snorting was
horrible. He first butted one of the sides with his
head, and as there was no resistance on the other,
the palanquin went over on its 'beam ends, and lay
perfectly flat, with its cane-bottom presented to the
tiger's view. Through this, and the mattress, heated
no doubt by my lying on it, the odour of the living
flesh came out stronger than through the wood, and
the snuffing and smelling were repeated with in-
creased strength. I certainly expected every moment
that, with a powerful blow of one of his paws, he
would break in some part of the palanquin, and drag
me out for his devouring. But another butting of
the head against the bottom of the palanquin rolled
it over on its convex top, and then it rocked to and
fro like a cradle. All this while I was obliged, of
course, to turn my body with the revolutions of the
palanquin itself; and every time I moved, I dreaded
lest it should provoke some fresh aggression. The
beast, however, wanting sagacity, did not use his
powerful paw as I expected ; and, giving it up in
despair, set up a hideous howl of disappointment.

KEft.cn BOMBAY IN SAFETY. 355

and slinked off in tlie direction from whence he came.
I rejoiced, as may be well imagined, at the cessation
of all sound and smell to indicate his presence ; but
it was a full quarter of an hour before I had courage
to open one of the side doors, and put my head out
to see whether he was gone or not. Happily he had
entirely disappeared, and I was infinitely relieved.

The next course to be considered was, whether I
should get out and walk to Bombay, a distance of
four miles, now near midnight, or whether I should
again close my doors and remain where I was. I
deemed this the safest plan, and remained accordingly ;
when, about half an hour beyond midnight, all my
bearers returned, with several peons or foot soldiers,
and muskets, pistols, lances, and sabres, enough to
capture and kill a dozen tigers ; but these were too
late to be of any use. They made many apologies
for leaving me, but said that as one of them would
have been certain of being seized by the tiger if they
remained, and no one could say which, they thought
it best that all should try at least to escape, and I
readily forgave them ; after which, they bore me
home, with more than usual alacrity, and I
enjoyed my repose all the more sweetly for the
danger I had escaped.

356 LINES TO MY AVIFE.

A ship being about to depart for England, I was
occupied for some days in writing long and numerous
letters to friends there; and with those to ray own
family, I forwarded the following lines, referring to
an incident mentioned in a previous chapter (p. 171.)
during my wanderings in Egypt : —

TO MY BEST BELOVED, WITH A VASE OF
EGYPTIAN ROSE-DEW.

When late my wandering steps were borne

Along the banks of Nile's green vale,
Oft as I drank the breath of morn

That floated on its humid gale.
The wild rose, rich in vernal bloom.

Bending beneath its purest dew.
Breathed fresher sweetness of perfume

Than Art's distilling power e'er knew.

Amid its rich unpencilled hues

Were seen, but oh ! with fainter glow.
The blushes Love could once transfuse

O'er thy chaste bosom's swelling snow,
While studded thus with lovelier pearl

Than Selim's favourite Georgian wears ;
Like thee it shone, dear absent girl,

In brighter beauty through its tears.

LINES TO MY WIFE. 357

III.

When trembling on thy lids of light,

As twin-born stars, I've seen them rise.
Blending, like these fair orbs o'er night,

Brilliance and softness in thine eyes ;
How have I wished that chymic Art

Could give their drops a crystalled form,
That I might wear them near my heart,

For ever bright, for ever warm.*

IV.

But since the prayer was breathed in vain,

As starting from their feeling source,
Proud Science self could forge no chain

To bind them in their trickling course.
Gathering from Arsinoe's fair flower

The gems its bud at morning wears,
I fondly stored the heaven-wept shower.

As emblems of thy purer tears.

V.

Long near my heart this vase I've worn,

Accustomed ever to receive
My earliest kiss at smiling morn,

My latest sigh at blushing eve ;
And every dew-drop there that fell,

Formed, as it swelled the odorous store,
A stronger charm, a sweeter spell,

To bind it to that heart still more.

* Rogers.

A A 3

358 LINES TO MY WIFE.

TT.

Nor wonder tliat when every gleam

Which brightened life and love had flown,
A vase like this could feed the dream

That cheered my path while wandering 'lone ;
For it had been my silent guide

O'er deserts wild, o'er mountains hoar,
O'er rocks that rise in salvage pride,

And bounding streams, and cataracts' roar.

vn.

Yes ! e'en amid the ruined piles

That hallow old ^gyptus' flood,
Beneath whose giant-pillared aisles,

Transfixed with silent awe I've stood ;
Lost in the dreams of ancient lore.

And wildered in its mystic maze.
This simple vase possessed the power

A dearer, stronger charm to raise.

vra.

Go ! then, companion of my way,

Round smiling Hope's high Southern Horn*,
Go ! to exhale thy sweets away.

Upon a fairer bosom borne ;
And if that bosom's rising swell

Shall greet thy first warm pressure there,
Dear and complete will be the spell

That hung on Love's remembered tear !

* One of the early names of the Cape of Good Hope.

359

CHAP. XX.

Mercantile want of confidence In the Egyptian Pasha. — Re-
linquishment of the Red Sea trade for the present.— Appoint-
ment to the command of an Arab frigate, the Humaijoon Shah,
for a voyage to China. — Information given against me to the
Solicitor-General. — Visits to the Chief Secretary and the
Governor. — Wish of Sir Evan Nepeau to make me an Ameri-
can. — Absurdity and injustice of the licensing system. —
Causes of this singular and unjust legislature. — Correspon-
dence with the Bombay Government. — Refusal to allow me
to remain in India. — Example of punishment without due
cause. — Permission at length given to return to Egypt. —
Heavy pecuniary losses sustained thereby.

During all the round of pleasure which I enjoyed
from the hospitality and kindness of my numerous
friends, the special object of my visit to Bombay
was never forgotten ; but I still found such reluc-
tance amoncf the British merchants there to trust
anything to the honour of Mohammed Ali Pasha,
without a fixed treaty that should ensure them pro-
tection and lieht duties on their commerce, that it
was vain to persevere further in any attempt to
induce them to enter, for the present at least, on the
Egyptian trade by way of the Red Sea. I therefore

A A 4

360 COMMAND AN ARAB FRIGATE.

thought it my tluty to look about for some employ-
ment here, and soon obtained it.

Among the native merchants to whom I had been
introduced by the friends witli whom I was residing,
was a Persian, named Moliammed Ali Khan, who
was agent for the Imaum of Muscat, and from him I
received an appointment to the command of a new
frigate belonging to that Arab prince, which had just
been built at the Portuguese port of Damaun, to
the north of Bombay, and had arrived here to be
fitted out for a voyage to China on the Imaum's
account. This vessel, named after one of the Mogul
emperors, the Humayoon Shah, was about 1200 tons,
built of teak, pierced for forty-four guns, and as
handsome and substantial as any ship of her class in
the British navy. Such a command was peculiarly
acceptable to me, and promised to be very lucrative,
as great privileges in the way of freight and passage
money were accorded to me by the Imaum, in addi-
tion to a very handsome salary as fixed pay. I re-
ceived therefore, with pleasure, my official appoint-
ment from his agent, Mohammed Ali Khan, and
took up my quarters on board, for the purpose of
fitting the ship out for her voyage.

This piece of good fortune had attracted not merely
the notice but the envy of several maritime officers.

AM INFORMED AGAINST. 361

Avlio had made application for the command and been
rejected ; and one of these, who had been offered the
appointment of chief officer, having learnt by some
means that I had not the East India Company's
license to visit India, made a formal report of this
circumstance to the Solicitor-General of the Com-
pany, who, by virtue of his office, is in every such
case bound to inform the Governor, and take his
instructions on the case. This gentleman, the Soli-
citor-General, Mr. Stephenson, was one of those
whose private hospitalities I had enjoyed, and he felt
great mortification at being obliged to notice officially
the information given him. He very politely sent
for me at, once, in order, first, to be assured of the
fact from my own admission, and next, to explain the
imperative necessity under which he was placed of
reporting the matter to the Governor, Sir Evan
Nepean, — assuring me, however, that he would do this
in the most favourable manner, in order to obtain, if
possible, the Governor's permission for me to proceed
on my voyage. He advised me also to wait on the
Chief Secretary, Mr. Francis Warden, at whose table
I had been often a welcome guest, to enlist his in-
fluence with Sir Evan on my behalf. This I did,
and Mr. Warden was as cordial in his assurance of
doing his best to serve me as the Solicitor himself.

362 THE GOVEENOE, SUGGESTS

A few days after this I received an invitation to
breakfast with the Governor ; and being always of a
sanguine and hopeful disposition, I began to augur
most favourably from such an event. I repaired to
the Governor's house, therefore, with great alacrity,
and found Sir Evan quite alone. He received me
with great politeness, being " a gentleman of the
old school," remarkable for his dignified bearing and
polished manners, which his long career as chief
secretary to the Admiralty under a Tory govern-
ment in England, would sufficiently account for.
He inquired with great interest about my travels,
the state of Egypt, the navigability of the Red Sea,
and other kindred topics ; and towards the close of
our interview, he said to me, " Mr. Buckingham,
were you never taken to be an American ? " I an-
swered that I had no remembrance of such a thing.
He continued — " But you look as much like an
American as like an Englishman." To which I re-
plied, that as both sprung from the same stock, the
diiference must be very slight between them as a
people, however much particular individuals might
differ ; but having been in America, and noticed the
physical peculiarities of its inhabitants, I did not think
it likely that I should ever be taken to be an Ame-
rican by those who were familiar with both countries.

THAT I MIGHT PASS FOR AN AMERICAN. 363

" Nevertheless," he added, " having, as you say,
been m America, you might the more readily pass
for one if you chose." I said, " Very possible ; but
I could not conceive any motive which could induce
me so to do. I was born and brought up an English-
man, and I wished so to continue." — " Oh, very
well," rejoined Sir Evan, " if you will not be an
American, I cannot, of course, make you one."
After this, visitors began to drop in, and I took
my leave, wondering within myself what could
have been the drift of the singular conversation
that had passed between us.

On mentioning this circumstance to my friends, I
learnt, to my great surprise, that if I had confessed
myself to be an American, the license of the East
India Company would no longer have been necessary
to enable me to visit India, and remain in it as long
as I thought proper ; and the same would have been
the case had I been a Frenchman, Dutchman,
Spaniard, or a native of any other foreign country ;
the license was required for Englishmen alone, and
all others were free. This appeared to me, upon
the face of it, to be so absurd, as well as unjust,
that I could not believe it till it was confirmed
to me by the testimony of the Solicitor-General
himself; who said that the evident wish and in-

364 ABSURDITY AND INJUSTICE

tention of Sir Evan Nepean, by the questions he
had pressed on me, was a desire to escape from the
painful necessity of ordering my banishment, by
getting me to avail myself of this legal exemption,
in confessing myself to be an American, and there-
fore needing no license to be in the Company's
dominions ; and several foreigners, including two
American missionaries, were named to me as then
residing in Bombay, without any license whatever,
and who could not be legally removed.

The cause of this anomaly was this:— The British
Government, in granting a charter of exclusive trade
to India and China to the East India Company, gave
the Company power, by this charter, to expel from
their dominions all British-born subjects who had
not their license to reside there, this being deemed
necessary to protect them, in their monopoly, from
the competition of '' interlopers," as they were called,
who might undersell them in their own markets.
But though the British Government might thus
condemn all the twenty millions of their own
native-born subjects to this state of ignominous
dependence on the will and pleasure or caprice of
a mere handful of monopolists — a body of some
twenty -four directors only, — in whose hands the
power of granting Hcenses and banishing those who

OF THE LICENSING SYSTEM. 365

did not possess them, rested, — it could not authorise
the exercise of such powers against the natives of
any foreign state, without subjecting the country to
a retaliation from those states in the same manner,
which might easily lead to a war. In point of fact,
therefore, the case stood thus : that all foreigners,
who had no natural claim on India as a part of their
dominions, might visit it freely, and reside and trade
in it as long as they pleased, without license from
its rulers ; while British-born subjects, who had
contributed, by their payment of taxes, to support
the very Government that made this charter, and
who, as the conquest of India had been made by
British blood and British treasure, and was still
held mider British tenure and the British flag,
might fairly regard it as a portion of the British
dominions, — these, who would seem to have the
fairest right to visit it freely, were unjustly ex-
cluded— in short, all foreigners were there freemen,
and free-born Englishmen alone were slaves ! There
was yet another anomaly. In the case of an En-
glishman settled in India, marrying an English wife,
and having children by her, their issue, born in
lawful wedlock, would be subject to the license-
law, and to banishment, if their licenses were with-
drawn ; but if the same Englishman, instead of

366 COERESPOiNDENCE WITH

marrying, had children by an Indian concubine,
the illegitimate offspring would be free from the
license system, and could not be banished like
the laAvfully-born.

On the 10th of May, about a fortnight after my
appointment to the command of the Humayoon Shahf
I received the following letter from the Solicitor-
General.

To Mr. Buckingham.

Sir, — I have received the orders of Government, to
call upon you to give security to proceed to England in
such ship and at such time as may be appointed by Go-
vernment, it being understood that you have no license
or authority to remain in India.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

J. H. Stephenson,
May 10. 1815. Comimny's Solicitor,

The meaning of the phrase " in such ship and at
such time as may be appointed by Government," as it
occurs in the preceding letter, requires explanation.
It refers to what is called " a charter-party passage,"
meaning that the Indian Government have the power
of sending all unlicensed Englishmen back to Eng-
land by one of their own vessels, paying to the com-

THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 307

mander lOZ. sterling for his passage, which entitles
him to a hammock among the seamen, and salt beef
and biscuit for his fare (the ordinary rate of a cabin
passage being 100^.) ; and the captain of the Indiaman
taking such passengers, is bound to give assurance
that he will not permit them to land anywhere
between India and England, lest they should escape
back again to the territory from which they were
banished ! Such were the provisions of the British
Legislature, which professes to honour and encourage
the pursuits of commerce ! The remainder of the
correspondence passing between myself and the
Bombay Government will be given seriatim, and will
sufficiently explain itself.

To Francis Warden, Esq., Chief Secretary to
Government.
Sir, — Having been called upon by Mr. J. H. Ste-
phenson, the Honourable Company's Solicitor, to give
security for my proceeding to England in such ship and
at such time as may be appointed by Government, it
being understood that I am provided with no license or
authority to remain in India, I beg leave to lay before
you a brief outline of the peculiar circumstances which
led to my visiting this country, both with a view to ac-
count for my being unprovided with such license, as well
as to ground a hope of receiving the indulgence allowed
to be exercised by the Government in granting special

368 COERESPOXDENCE WITH

licences until the pleasure of the Court of Directors shall
be known, as explained in the new Act of 53 Geo. 3. cap.
155. sec. 37.

In the month of April, 1813, before the new Act came
into force, I sailed from Portsmouth for the Mediterra-
nean, in company with the Stirling Castle, on board of
which Lord Moira was embarked for India, and proceeded
from thence to Malta, with the intention of settling there ;
but being prevented from landing by the existence of the
plague, I was compelled to proceed on to Smyrna, and soon
afterwards to visit Egypt, where a mission to this countiy
was proposed to me for the purpose of forming a com-
mercial connexion between the most respectable British
house in Alexandria and Cairo, and the mercantile esta-
blishment of Mr. John Leckie of this place.

After a considerable sacrifice of time and money, I
quitted Egypt on a voyage to Bombay, under the imme-
diate patronage of Colonel Missett, the British Resident,
and Mr. Peter Lee, the British Consul there, by both of
whom I was furnished with letters of introduction and
recommendation, it being unknown to them as well as to
myself at that time what were likely to be the restrictive
clauses in the new Charter, which had not then reached
that country ; and the general anticipation being that
former obstructions as to visiting India would be re-
moved, and greater facilities granted by it to the industry
and honourable views of such of his Majesty's subjects
as might be disposed to engage in the trade of the East,
particularly through channels like that of the Red Sea,
which, if not occupied by British subjects, would in times

THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 369

of peace inevitably fall into the hands of foreign mer-
chants.

On my arrival here, my first endeavours were to as-
certain what were the necessary steps to be taken to avoid
the slightest suspicion of my intentions being clandestine.
when I accordingly reported myself personally to Mr.
Goodwin, the Superintendent of Police, and by him was
taken to the Right Honourable the Governor, to whom I
disclosed with frankness the train of circumstances which
led to my voyage, and the object it had in view.

It has unfortunately happened that from the great
length of my passage down the Red Sea, my arrival here
was at a moment when some general commercial changes,
as well as alterations in the private views of Mr. Leckie,
to whom I came particularly addressed, had induced him
to abandon his first intentions, so that I remained here,
almost without any positively determined object, until
under these circumstances an offer has been made to me,
on certain conditions, by Mohammed AH Khan, the agent
of the Imaum of Muscat, of the command of one of his
vessels, destined for the China trade, — a station for which
I am qualified by nearly seven years' experience, as chief
officer and commander of different British sliips to Ame-
rica, the "West Indies, and the Mediterranean.

As, then. Sir, a long train of expenditure, losses, and
disappointments have rendered me incapable of return-
ing to England immediately, without absolute ruin to all
my prospects, and without involving also the want and
suffering of a dependent family,— since, too, I have neither
deserted the service of his Majesty, nor of the Honourable

VOL. II. B B

370 CORRESPONDENCE WITH

Company, nor have the remotest intention of interfering
with their exclusive privileges — nor belong at all to the
description of persons against which the restrictive clauses
of the Act seem chiefly to be directed — nor have mani-
fested the most distant wish to evade the orders of Go-
vei'nment — I have to beg that you will solicit for me the
indulgence of a special licence to remain in India, until
the pleasure of the Court of Directors shall be known,
according to the power vested in the local governments by
the 37th section of the Act before alluded to, in order to
enable me to accept the employment thus offered to me
in the service of the Imaum of Muscat, whose maritime
commands cannot, perhaps, be more advantageously dis-
posed of for the interests of Great Britain than by being
placed in the hands of her own subjects, rather than those
of France or other foreign Powers.

I have the honour to be, &c.

J. S. Buckingham.

Bombay, May 12. 1815.

To Mr. Buckingham.

Sir, — In reply to your letter dated the 12th instant,

I am directed to inform you that the Right Honourable

the Governor in Council cannot, consistently with a due

attention to the instructions of the Honourable the Court

of Directors, accede to your application to be permitted

to remain in India until their pleasure shall be known.

I have the honour to be, &c.

F. Warden,

Chief Secretary to Government.
Bombay, May 17. 1815.

THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 371

This conduct of tlie British Government, in refusing
even an appeal to tlic India Directors at home, appeared,
even to the Persian agent of the Imaum, Mohammed
Ali Khan, so cruel and tyrannical, thougli accustomed
from his youth upward to live under a despotic sovereign,
that he expressed his astonishment and indignation in
unmeasured terms ; and declared, that whoever might
command the Humoyoon Shah in my absence, should
hold the appointment conditionally only, and that if I
succeeded in obtaining leave to return again to India, I
should be reinstated in the command, — a promise he
faithfully performed, as will be seen in the sequel. I
then addressed a last appeal to the Governor, as follows :

To the Right Honourable Sir Ecan Nepean, Bart.,
President and Governor in Council, Bombay.

Right Honourable Sir, — I have had the honour to
receive, in a letter from the Chief Secretary, dated the
17th instant, information that the Right Honourable the
Governor in Council could not, consistently with a due
attention to the instructions of the Honourable Court
of Directors, accede to my application to be permitted to
remain in India until their pleasure should be known.

When I addressed the Government through its Chief
Secretary, in my letter of the 12th instant, in answer to
the Honourable Company's Solicitor's demand of a secu-
rity for my returning to England, and stated the grounds
on which I ventured to hope for the indulgence of my
being suffered to remain here until the pleasure of the
Court of Directors upon my case should be known, I was

B B 2

372 CORRESPONDENCE WITH

induced to believe that such indulgence, from the nature
of the circumstances under which it was solicited, would
not have been denied to me.

On a reference to the new Charter, the first time of
my seeing which has been since my arrival in this coun-
try, I am more and more confirmed in my hopes that your
Right Honourable Board will yet, on reconsidering my
case, conceive it to be one of those which were in the
contemplation of the British Legislature, w^hen the pro-
visionary clauses of its last Act were framed. — You will
pardon me, therefore. Right Honourable Sir, if, induced
by the anxiety natural to my situation, I take the liberty
of bringing before you an extract from it, in the words
of the Act itself.

" Provided nevertheless, that any Governor General,
or Governor, of the said Presidencies, for extraordinary
reasons to be entered upon the Minutes of Council, may
authorise, by special licence, the residence of any subject
of his Majesty in any place or places under the govern-
ment of such Presidency, until the pleasure of the said
Court of Directors shall be known in their behalf; and
that such special licence shall be deemed and taken to be
of the same force and effect as a licence of and from the
said Court of Directors, until notice of the pleasure of
the said Court to the contrary shall have been given to
such person, by delivery thereof to such person, or by
leaving the same at his last place of abode, or by pub-
lication thereof in the Gazette of the Presidency by which
such special licence shall have been granted: provided
that a copy of such licence, and of the reasons for grant-
ing the same, accompanied with an apphcation lor a li-
cence from tlie said Court of Directors, shall be trans-
mitted to the said Court of Directors forthwith after the
granting thereof." 53 Geo. 3. cap. 155. sec. 37.

Had it not been in the contemplation of the British

THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 373

Parliament tliat cases might arise in which the individual
being found in India without a licence, might be blame-
less, and worthy of receiving a special one from the local
governments, until the reasons for his being so unpro-
vided and a statement of his case could be known to the
Honourable Court of Directors at home, no such clause
as the one just quoted could have been necessary. I
have ventured to presume that my own is a case of that
description, and I am not without a hope that your Ho-
nourable Board may still be induced to regard it in that
light.

Having quitted England before the new Act for the
regulation of Indian affairs had become law, and without
having at that time the remotest intention of visiting
India, my departure from England without such licence
is perfectly accounted for. At the same time, such fa-
cilities are granted by the New Charter for all unobjec-
tionable persons obtaining licences, that it can scarcely
be doubted but that an application for that purpose would
easily procure one, as will be seen by a reference to the
thirty-third section of the said Charter.

INIy original determination to visit this country was not
even formed until I was already midway between Great
Britain and her Eastern possessions, and was then brought
about by a series of losses and disappointments which
compelled me to seek for some immediate employment ;
and undertaken for the accomplishment of a particular
object, without a view to fixed residence, and in the con-
templation of a temporary stay only for that pui'pose.

That object has, however, been defeated, by the length

BBS

374 CORRESPONDENCE WITH

of my voyage, and consequent lateness of my arrival ; a
voyage, in the course of which, besides the sufferings and
sacrifices that I have sustained on the way, the small por-
tion of what remained from my ruinous losses — all arising
from a plague which no human prudence could foresee,
no human skill avert, — has been altogether expended.

But for the generous assistance of Colonel Missett, the
British Resident in Egypt, my voyage from that country
to Bombay could not have been undertaken ; and I am
unwilling to suppose that such a man, so long holding a
public situation connected with the Company's service,
and who has acquitted himself of its duties with so much
credit to himself, and satisfaction to his Honourable Em-
ployers, would have patronised me in an undertaking
which he believed to be at all improper, or likely to in-
terfere in the remotest way with the Honourable Com-
pany's interests.

Finding myself disappointed in the particular object
for which I visited this country, and on which I rested
all my future hopes of independence, I naturally looked
around me for such means of procuring an honourable
subsistence as might offer themselves to the industry and
qualifications of any honest man. Experienced in my
own profession, I sought no other favour than the power
of exercising it for the maintenance of myself and my
family, for whom I have been two years labouring in
vain. The testimonies which I was enabled to produce
of my capacity, and the number of my recommendatory
letters, procured for me, and fortunately too as I then
thought, the offer of the command of a new ship in the

THE liOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 375

China trade, belonging to the Imaum of Muscat, a service
for which a knowledge of the Arabic language, acquired
during my stay in Egypt and Arabia, had still more par-
ticularly qualified me.

The rejection, on the part of Grovernment, of my ap-
plication for permission to hold the command of this ship,
belonging to the independent prince of a country (Arabia)
to which British subjects can go without any licence
whatsoever (being out of the Company's limits), will, if
persisted in, oblige me to abandon the only hope that re-
mains of recovering the serious losses which I have in-
curred by unforeseen and inevitable calamities, of placing
me in a situation to meet the claims existing against me
as a husband and a father, and of enabling me again to
fill my station as a useful and honourable member of
society.

It is not for me, Right Honourable Sir, to offer an
opinion on the nature of the private instructions of the
Honourable Company, on which the refusal to accede to
my request is grounded ; but surely it cannot be denied
that it is a case of peculiar, I would almost say, incredible
hardship, after having travelled thi'ough countries uni-
versally deemed barbarous and savage, and meeting in
them kindness, hospitality, and liberal treatment, to find,
on my treading on what I looked forward to as at least a
friendly shore, and mixing again with my native country-
men, all my hopes of protection and encouragement on that
account entirely destroyed.

Through all my travels hitherto, the circumstance of
my being an Englishman has obtained for me facilities,

B B 4

376 CORRESPONDENCE WITH

honours, and distinctions ; until, on my arrival here,
where it would have been expected that such a privilege
would have operated still more powerfully in my favour,
I regret to find that the very circumstance of my being
an Englishman is the heaviest charge which can be laid
to my account. Had I been a Frenchman, an American,
or even a Turk, seeking refuge among foreigners and
strangers, I should have been unmolested in my labours
and pursuits, and permitted to remain in any part of
British India ; but, simply because I am aBi'itish subject,
a title which on all other occasions is the best and proud-
est claim to indulgence and favour, I am rendered liable
to penalties, to hardships, and even ruin, for daring to be
found in British territories, and that too, without my
being considered guilty of any crime, without even the
imputation of a fault !

It is well known that Arab ships, throughout the East-
ern seas, are often commanded by Frenchmen, as well as
by Americans, who have, in such situations, acquired a
knowledge of the local navigation, which has fitted them
for the boldest enterprises in privateers, and enabled
them to do extensive injury to our commerce thereby.
Indeed, from the ignorance of the native captains, no
Arab ship is sent upon a voyage of any difficulty with-
out an European commander ; and it must be evident, on
national and politically commercial grounds, how import-
ant it is to secure these commands in the hands of British
rather than of foreign mariners, for the double purpose of
increasing the respectability and influence of the British
character with all the Native Powers of the East, and of

THE B03IBAY GOVERNMENT. 377

preventiug tlie subjects of nations always likely, sooner
or later, to become our enemies, from holding stations
whicli will often enable them to counteract us, and give
them opportunities of acquiring such information as may
be of the highest importance to the prosecution of their
designs.

I have reached this country through toils and dangei's,
fatigue and expenditure, no small portion of w^hich has
been incurred and suffered in the prosecution of re-
searches, honourable, I hope, to the undertaker of them ;
beneficial, I would fain believe, to mankind ; and likely
to be of service perhaps to my country ; circumstances
which, of themselves, are in every other nation admitted
as claims to some indulgent considerations on the indi-
vidual's behalf.

I have found a station suited to my capacity and my
wishes, one which I hope I am qualified to fill with credit
to myself, satisfaction to my employers, and advantage to
British interests ; and in that station I am desirous of
honestly employing my industry and my skill. It cannot
be, surely, that because I am unfortunate, when I am se-
lected as worthy of an employment in which these mis-
fortunes may be ameliorated, and when I am desirous of
avoiding all offence either to private interests, or to pub-
lic laws, by industriously earning a subsistence, that I
should be thought to deserve to suffer all the loss of time,
and painful mortification of a charter-party voyage, after
which I should be placed on shore in England to return
to my family after two years' toils and absence, with dis-
appointed hopes, with broken spirits, and with empty

378 CORRESPONDENCE WITH

hands ? I still trust, that the justice, if not the liberality,
of the Government will deliver me from such a calamity.

In a situation of such inexpi-essible anxiety, and
threatening such ruin to all my prospects, I shall be ex-
cused by the vei'y nature of the dilemma to which I now
lind myself reduced, if I chum some merit from my share
in the prosecution of those plans for extending our know-
ledge of foreign lands, which have been considered as
forming one of the peculiar glories of the present reign.
When I had what I deemed the good fortune to extend
my journey above the cataracts of the Nile, in a tract
hitherto but little visited and imperfectly described, I did
imagine, when affording my contribution towards African
discovery, (an object which had been encouraged with
such eagerness and at such expense by the most eminent
of our statesmen, and particularly by the distinguished
nobleman who now presides over the British empire in
India,) that I had perhaps established some slight claims
to the countenance of ray countrymen in Asia.

Had there been the slightest existing cause for the ex-
ertion of the power of transporting me to England, from
the discovery of any thing dishonourable or improper in
my conduct or my views, or could I believe that my re-
moval from hence would be of the remotest benefit to
mankind or to my country, I should have submitted
without a murmur to the laws that banished me ; but,
conscious as I am that my views are as laudable as my
conduct is irreproachable, and that my removal would
plunge innocent and deserving beings into almost irre-
trievable misery, without benefiting a single individual.

THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 379

I am still willing to believe, from the knoAvn liberality of
the Government here, that it will yet see reason to re-
frain from carrying so harsh, and, to me, so ruinous, a
measure into execution.

Permit me then again, Right Honourable Sir, to throw
myself on your notice, entreating you yet to consider
whether my case be not one of those for which the British
Parliament has made provision by the thirty-seventh sec-
tion of its Act, in enabling the local governments to ex-
ercise their discretion thereon ; and whether my present
removal to England can be of the slightest private or
public benefit ; since, as my character is unobjectionable,
and my purposes lawful, my claim may be expected there
to be heard aud granted at last, according to the provi-
sions made for that purpose in the thirty-third section of
the Act already referred to.

In the mean time, permit me to state, that I am not
only willing, but extremely desirous, that the circum-
stances of my case on which I ground my hopes of in-
dulgence, should be laid before the Honourable Court of
Directors for their opinion and pleasure thereon ; and
that I shall be prepared to accompany a representation
of it, with such references to the most respectable mer-
chants in London, as shall prove to them the truth of my
statement, and establish the purity of my character and
reputation ; under all which considerations, I cannot but
continue to indulge a hope that one of the great objects
of the New Charter to encourage the labours of up-
right and honoui'able British subjects in India, will not
be defeated, by refusing me the power to exercise my

380 CORRESPONDENCE WITH

own industry for the maintenance of myself and my
family, and that your Honourable Board will yet see
reason to permit my continuance in a command, from
which both private and public benefits might accrue,
without the probability of its being productive of a single
evil.

In the event of my being permitted to remain in India
until an application can be made on my behalf at home for
a licence from the Honourable Court, I shall of course be
prepared to give the I'equisite securities for a compliance
Avith their decision, in quitting the limits of their terri-
tories immediately on my receiving their orders so to do.

I have the honour to be, &e.

J. S. BUCKINGUAJI.

Bombay, May 26. 1815.

To Mr. Buckingham.

Judicial Dei)artmeiit,
Sir, — I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter, dated th(; 26tli instant, and to inform you that
the Right Honourable the Governor in Council can see
no better grounds for permitting you to remain in India
until an application can be made for a licence from the
Honourable Court of Directors, than in favour of any
other individual who may think fit to come to this Presi-
dency without the permission of the Honourable Court,
and that the Governor in Council cannot, therefore, res-

THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 381

cind the orders which have been issued for ensuring your

return to England.

I have the honour to be, &c.

F. Warden,

Chief Secretary to Government.
Bombay, June 1. 1815.

To Francis Warden, Esq., Chief Secretary to
Government, Bombay.

Sir, — I have had the honour to receive your letter,
dated the 1st instant, containing the rejection of my ap-
plication for a special licence from the Right Honourable
the Governor in Council, and continuing the former
orders of the Government for my removal.

Submitting, therefore, to such decision on my case, I
beg leave to state my intention of quitting India as
speedily as possible.

Disappointed as I have been in my hopes of accom-
plishing the secondary object of my entering into the
Imaum's maritime service, I am desirous of returning to
Egypt by way of the Red Sea and Suez, from whence I
came, for the purpose of closing my concerns in that
country.

As every moment's delay will be of material conse-
quence to my own affairs, as well as inimical to the wish
of the Government for my speedy departure ; and as no
opportunities can offer direct from hence to the Red Sea,
until the return of the fair monsoon, or for several months
hence, while from Bengal vessels are constantly depart-
ing, I have to beg that you will solicit for me the per-

382 CORRESPONDENCE WITH

mission of the Honourable Board to seize the first op-
portunity of going round to Bengal, for the purpose of
prosecuting my voyage from thence to Egypt without
delay.

To remove all possible doubt from the minds of the
Government as to my intention of wishing to evade its
decision, I am desirous that the reasons of my visiting
Bengal should be stated on the face of my passport for
that purpose, and am prepared to offer all the security
that can be required, from respectable persons here, for
my reporting myself to the proper officers on my arrival
in Bengal.

I have the honour to be, &c.

J. S. Buckingham.
Bombay, June 6. 1815.

To Mr. Bucldn()liam.

Judicial Department.
Sir, — I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of
your lettei", dated the 6th instant, and to inform you that
the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, being
under the necessity of enforcing the orders of the Honour-
able Court of Directors, for your return to England, can-
not allow you the permission you have solicited to pro-
ceed to Egypt by way of Bengal.

I have the honour to be, &c.

F. Warden,
Chief Secretary to Government.
Bombay Castle, June 12. 1815.

THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 383

The horrors of " a charter-party passage" as a
convict, — the scorn of the men and the contempt of
the officers in whatever ship I might be transported, —
filled me with disgust and indignation ; and every
means were thought of to elude the degradation if
possible. A favourable opportunity offered, and was
gladly embraced. A new line-of-battle ship, the
Wellesley, of seventy-four guns, built at Bombay for
the British navy, was fitting in the harbour for her
voyage to England. From the scarcity of naval
officers then in port, her commander was selected
from the lieutenants of another ship, and being young
and inexperienced for such a charge, he wanted the aid
of a sailing-master, who should be a thoroughly prac-
tical navigator, as well as a seaman, for this duty. My
services were offered, and, after a long conference and
examination, were accepted. I obtained the consent
of the Governor to fill this post instead of going home
as "a charter-party passenger" in an Indiaman, and
was thus relieved of all apprehension on that score.
I therefore went on board, received my appointment,
and entered on my duty to complete the fitting out
of the ship for sea, — when, in a few days after, we
heard that a Company's cruiser had been suddenly
ordered to get ready for a voyage to the Red Sea
with despatches for the Government. This furnished

384 PREPARE TO LEAVE INDIA.

another hope of being allowed to go by her to Egypt,
where all my prospects lay, instead of to England :
and I accordingly made personal application to the
Chief Secretary, Mr. Warden (whose kindness to me
throughout the whole of this harassing period was
beyond all praise), and he promised to recommend
the Governor to allow me to go by that ship, the
Prince of Wales, and let me know the result, which
the following notes will explain.

To Sir Evan Nepean, Bart.

My dear Sir Evan, — As the Prince of Wales is
proceeding to Mocha, I conclude there can be no objec-
tion to Mr. Buckingham being allowed to return to
Egypt. He has concerns to settle there, and is desirous
of returning thence, as you have not allowed liim to go
via Bengal.

Yours, faithfully,

F. Warden.
Bombay, June 19. 1815.

Sir Evan Nepean's Reply.

Dear Warden, — I can have no objection to Mr.
Buckingham's returning to England by the way of Mocha.
He came hither, I understand, by that i-oute.

But I have an objection to the allowing him to go to

INJUSTICE OF THE LICENSE SYSTEM. 385

Bengal, or to any other part of India ; having determined
to discourage all attempts which may be made by persons
to settle in India without the license of the Company.

To the individual himself I have not the slightest de-
gree of objection. On the contrary, he appeared to be a
sensible, intelligent man, and I shall by no means be sorry
to see him return with the Company's license, believing,
as I do, that he would be of use to the mercantile in-
terests, in opening the trade of the Red Sea.

Yours, &c.

E. Nepean.

Here, then, was an example of a person admitted
by the Governor himself to be not only innocent of
any offence, but honourably and usefully employed,
about to be sent back to England as a prisoner or
convict, in " a charter-party passage," with all its
inconveniences, and only escaping this fate by a
double accident of a new line-of-battle ship wanting
a sailing-master to navigate her to England, and a
Company's cruiser ordered off to the Red Sea with de-
spatches. If either of these accidents had not occurred,
I could not have escaped the infliction of a severe pun-
ishment, without trial, or the protection of any court
of law against the arbitrary decree of a Governor
bound down by private instructio7is from the India
Directors at home, to exclude with the utmost rigour
all British-born subjects from their donn'nions, as

VOL. II. C C

386 PECUNIARY LOSS CAUSED BY MY

dangerous to the exclusive monopoly which the Le-
gislature so unwisely entrusted to their hands ;
though in the public Act of that Legislature express
provision had been made for special cases like my
own. It is in this way that the intentions of the Le-
gislature are often defeated by private instructions to
those who have to carry them into effect.

A striking illustration of the severity with which
these restrictions were enforced, will be found in the
following fact. In the course of the friendly corre-
spondence which passed between Mr. William Ers-
kine of Bombay, and the Honourable Montstuart
Elphinstone, then Political Resident or Ambassador
at the Court of Poonah, the former had mentioned
something of my history and travels, which induced
Mr. Elphinstone to express a wish that I should pay
him a visit at Poonah ; but though no man in India
had a higher reputation than Mr. Elphinstone, and
though it was impossible to imagine any public incon-
venience as likely to arise from my paying him such
a visit, the fact of my being without the Company's
license rendered it impossible for me to obtain per-
mission of the Governor of Bombay to go there.

The immediate pecuniary loss to me, by this re-
moval from my command of the Humayoon ShaJi,
and the expense and loss of time which my return to

FIRST BANISHMENT FROM INDIA. 387

Egypt would involve, was in itself very considerable ;
but it was trifling compared with the prospective loss,
as the individual who succeeded me in the command,
Captain Richardson, made, during my absence in
Egypt and Asia, three successful voyages between
Bombay and Canton, by which he realised a for une
of more than 30,000/. : a fact first communicated to
me on my return to Bombay from Egypt in 1816,
and subsequently confirmed to me by his own lips in
London.

This, then, was a third occasion on lohich I toas sub-
jected to heavy pecuniary losses, loithout any fault of
mine, hut hy the conduct of others as described.

c c 2

388

CHAP. XXI.

Voyage from Bombay to Suez by the Red Sea. — Agreeable
and accomplished companion, Mr. Babington. — Preparations
for sea, and farewell visits. — Liberality of my friends ^ii\
Erskine and Wedderburn. — Lines on leaving Bombay in the
Prince of Wales, cruiser. — Southern passage beyond the
Equator. — Heavy gales. — Island of Diego Garcia. — Approach
to the African coast. — Extract from the Manuscript Journal
of our voyage. — Mons Felix, an error for the Mountain of
the Elephant. — Illustrations of Agatharchides and Ovid. —
Halcyons. — Arrival and stay at Mocha, and thence to Jedda.
Peculiarities of the Red Sea — its crystal clearness. — Beauty
of the Coral formations on the reefs. — Difficulties and facili-
ties of its navigation. — Transformation of shoals to habitable
islands. — Anomalies in the tides of the Red Sea. — Lines to
the air of " Montalambert in a Calm."

This Chapter ought to form a volume of itself, as
embracing the whole of my return voyage from Bom-
bay to Suez by the Red Sea, and extending from the
27th of June to the 20th of November 1815, — a period
of five months, almost every day of which w^as marked
by some interesting incident, or the acquisition ol
some new hydrographical information. The Manu-
script Journal of it, which has never been published,
is still in my possession, and occupies more than 500

MR. BENJAMIN BABINGTON. 389

closely written large folio pages, equal to about 1000
pages of printed matter of the size of the present
work, and this is but one of twenty-eight such volumes,
in which my Travels in the Eastern and Western
World have been recorded. The hitherto unpublished
portions of these may yet perhaps see the light, if I
am spared to live, or if, when I am no more, my
children should be disposed to give them publicity.
But for the present at least, the merest outline of my
return voyage from India to Egypt must suffice.

Mr. Benjamin Babington, who intended going to
England for the benefit of his health, had become
so much interested in the descriptions I had given
him of Egypt and the Overland route, then scarcely
at all traversed by Europeans, that he expressed a
strong desire to accompany me on this voyage, a
proposition I received with great delight, as nothing
could be more acceptable than the companionship of
so agreeable and accomplished a friend.

In making a round of farewell visits previous to
my embarkation, I met everywhere the most cordial
assurances of deep regret at my banishment, with
earnest wishes for my speedy and triumphant return.
I received, also, substantial aid in the supply of many
comforts and even luxuries for the voyage, from my
c c 3

390 FAEEWELL TO MY FRIENDS IN INDIA.

friends Mr. Erskine and Wedderburn, with a credit
in money to meet any pressing wants, relying entirely
on my honour as the only security I could offer them
for repayment.

On the 27 th of June, therefore, we embarked in
the Company's cruiser, the Prince of Wales, com-
manded by Captain Maiilard, with four other English
officers of the Bombay Marine, an armament of four-
teen guns, and a mixed crew of English, Portuguese,
and Indian Lascars ; and the wind being very light,
our progress out of the harbour was remarkably slow,
which gave mc time to write, and send on shore
by the pilot, the following Farewell to my Indian
friends : —

FAREWELL TO FRIENDS IN INDIA.

Fair India! while slowly thy shores are receding,

And the trace of thy mountains grows dim to the view,
Some cheering presentiment whispers I 'm bidding

Thy long-toiled-for port but a transient adieu.
That those ever-green bowers where at evening I 've
strayed,
With the few who could feel both my pleasures and
pain,
Where friendships were vowed, and where pledges were
made,
Will soon bear the print of my footsteps again.

FAREWELL LINES, 391

O ! Fate ! in uncertainty's dark womb concealing

The events of the future, in ignorance blest,
Still prolong the delusion, nor blast by revealing

The shadow of hope that clings close to my breast ;
Tho' faintly it glimmers, I 'II cherish it there

Till possession its embers expand into flame,
Till again I embrace the few friends that are dear,

Yes ! dearer than riches, than power, or fame !

See the crest-fallen signal, its folds scarcely waving.

And the low drooping sails hanging idly unfurl'd ;
Like sorrow's sad calm o'er my bosom, while leaving

Thy shores — tho' for Egypt, old queen of the world.
But if to the land of my fathers I haste,

The breath of whose hills my young infancy drew,
Oil ! there will await me the welcome embrace

Of those who have loved me still dearer tlian you.

And if there, while the records of absence unfolding
To hearts that will make all my sorrows their own.
Remembrance should mingle delight in beholding

The scenes and the circles where pleasures were
known :
Then, oft in response to the half-suppressed sigh.

Warmly breathed o'er the tale of fair friendship's sweet
lore J
Sensibility's tribute, from sympathy's eye.

Will steal to those few left on India's far shore,
c c 4

392 LINES TO MY FRIENDS IN INDIA.

Then believe me, ye few I that wherever I'm straying,

To the east or the west, at the line, or the pole,
The magic of memory, those scenes still jiortraying.

Will stamp them indelibly firm on my soul.
Yes ! tlio' driven from fortune, tho' exiled from friends,

My heart bids defiance to tyranny's chain ;
And where'er my dark course through this banishment
bends,

It will bound with the liope of our meeting again.

It being now the season of tlie south-west monsoon,
we had to make what is called the southern passage,
going down tlie coast of Malabar, passing Cejlon,
crossing the equator, and extending our track as far
as the eighth degree of southern latitude, going round
the island of Diego Garcia, where we met the south-
east trade-wind, and by that means ran down our
westing to the 48th degree of east longitude, when
we made the east coast of Africa, and soon after
rounded Cape Guardafui, of which we took many
drawings from different points of view, passing there-
fore, between it and the island of Socotra to the east-
ward, this cape forming the north-eastern extremity
of Africa, in the Indian Ocean, and commencing the
entrance to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and the
Red Sea.

In our passage southward from Bombay, we en-

SOUTHEEN PASSAGE. 393

countered some of the tremendous squalls and heavy
gales which characterise the south-west monsoon,
being frequently obliged to take in every stitch of
canvas and let the ship drive before the wind, while
pitch darkness and the lurid glare of almost incessant
lightning succeeded each other at intervals of a few
minutes apart only, and the rain fell in torrents so
as to flood the decks before it could find an outlet
through the ports and scupper-holes into the sea.

In the south-east trades we had fine steady weather,
with strong breezes, which made our passage more
agreeable by the contrast; and we enjoyed alternately
the pleasures of reading, writing, music, and conver-
sation from daylight till ten at night, with short
intervals of exercise on deck between our meals.

The great interest of the voyage began, however,
on our rounding Cape Guardafui, as here we had
the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea for the ancient,
and Horsburgh's East India Directory for the mo-
dern, hydrography of the African coast ; so that every
hour was fully employed in examining, comparing,
and contrasting the two, and bringing both to the test
of actual observation with the originals before our eyes.
Mr. Babino-ton entered with 2reat zest into the in-
vestigation with myself, and our co-operative labours

394 EXTRACT FEOM MY JOURNAL.

were mutually agreeable. We passed a remarkable
White Island, so called, on the coast of Adel, in
about lat. 11° 10' N., long. 48° E., covered with what
we now think probable would be found to be guano,
or the deposit of sea-birds' dung, which has been so
recently employed in agriculture, and is brought
extensively from islands in the Pacific belonging to
Peru.

A single extract from the Journal of one of our
days' observations in this part of the voyage will
explain, perhaps better than a mere description of it,
the kind of investigations which this almost unknown
and rarely visited coast opened up to our inquiry,
and the manner in which these were pursued.

"August 9. — Coast of Adel, Eastern Africa. At
daybreak it was extremely cloudy, and the sun was
not visible through the thick mist that overspread
the sky till an hour after its rising. We were
now about nine miles from the shore, with no
soundings at eighty fathoms; and though it had
been nearly calm^ during all the night, we had
been carried, by a westerly current, about six
leagues since the last sunset.

" At noon we observed in latitude 12° N., and had
' Gebel Feel,' or Mount Elephant, which these

MON8 FELIX. 395

Arabic words implj, to bear S.E. \ E. eleven or
twelve miles, with no soundings at one hundred
fathoms. The latitude of Gebel Feel is therefore
11° 53' N., or seven miles to the southward of the
place assigned to it by Horsburgh.

" This is the Mens Felix of the Periplus, and it
furnishes a striking instance of the manner in which
names are transferred from one language to another
by resemblance of sound, rather than coincidence of
meaning. Supposing the word Feel to be a proper
Jiame, as Atlas or Etna, the author of the Periplus
Avould understand Gebel Feel to mean simply Mount
Feel ; and the transition from this to Mount Felix
would be easy and poetical, making it at once the
Happy Mountain, as, though nearer to Africa, it was
also opposite to the southern coast of Sabea, the
Arabia Felix, or Happy Arabia of the ancients.
But the origin of the name was undoubtedly the
form of the mountain itself, which strikingly re-
sembles the upper portion of the elephant, an animal
so familiar to Africans, Arabians, and Indians, as to
make them readily cognisant of such resemblance.

*' This will be sufficiently evident from a compari-
son of the outline views here represented, with a
complete picture of the elephant itself, in the next
page.

396 MOUNTAIN OF THE ELEPHANT.

View of Gebel Feel, beaiing West half South.

View of Gebel Feel, bearing East half South.

It will be seen that the upper portion of the fio-ure
of the elephant, above the dividing line, corresponds

GEBEL FEEL. 397

exactly with the outhne of the mountain, which, seen
either from the east or the west, requires only the
addition of tlie lower part of the animal to make the
figure of the elephant complete.

" The Arabic name J-.3 J-os- Gebel Feel, or Mount
Elephant, by which it is known by the native
navigators along this coast, should in future, there-
fore, be substituted for the Mons Felix of the
Periplus, under which name it still appears in many
of the charts. Like the Rock of Gibraltar, it is
connected with the main land by a low sandy isthmus,
which is not visible at a distance of eight or nine
miles ; so that, like the Rock, it appears at first to be
an island with a passage between it and the continent,
till a nearer approach makes the low isthmus visible.

"No new circumstances caught our observation
during the day, but we witnessed a repetition of all
those peculiarities already remarked, with regard
to the pale rising of the sun, which cast no shadow
till well above the horizon, the turbid state of the
water, when viewed from alongside, looking down
perpendicularly into its depths, by which it seemed
literally filled with marine polypi, sea-weed, and
jelly-like creatures of every size, colour, and form,
and the glassy whiteness of the surface when viewed
horizontally or along its level during a calm.

398 VERACITY OF AGATHARCHIDES.

" It is singular enough that some of the observa-
tions of Agatharchides, on this region, off tlie coast
of Sabea, which have been ranked among the mar-
vellous, should be confirmed bj actual observation so
many centuries afterwards ; which has been the case
also with Herodotus, and some others of the ancient
writers, respecting whose statements we have been
incredulous, because we were less accurately informed
as to the countries they described than themselves.
Agatharchides, for instance, remarks that, as soon as
you are past Sabea, the sea appears white like a river;
that the Fortunate Islands skirt the coasts ; that the
flocks and herds are all white, and the females are
without horns ; that there is little or no twilight in the
morning ; that the sun often rises and sets like a
column rather than a disk ; and that no shadow is cast
by it till it is an hour above the horizon.

" Now, we had ourselves observed, before we read
this passage, the remarkable whiteness of the sea,
when seen along its surface, as well as the shortness
of the twilight, and the absence of all shadow till the
sun was well above the horizon ; and had subsequently
seen some of the sheep of the coast, which were white
over all the body, being covered with a short hair
instead of wool, and having small black heads, with-
out horns.

HALCYONS. 399

*' Throughout the whole of the morning, which
liad been hazj at sanrise as usual, the sea appeared
to be covered with various animal substances like the
masses which obstructed our passage in the Mediter-
ranean, described in a former chapter (Vol. ii. p. 35.),
and which was then ascertained to be formed of
drowned locusts, so that the surface seemed proof
against any agitation by the wind, notwithstanding
that all our sails, from the courses to the royals,
were well filled, and the ship made from four to
five knots through the water. Not a catspaw of
ripple could be anywhere seen on the surface ; even
the parting of the waters by the bow produced
no foam, as the fluid passed outward right and left,
with the smoothness of oil ; and the very track of the
ship astern scarcely left any trace behind it.

" During the remarkable calm below, and breeze
above, we passed large flocks of birds, sitting in
squadrons on the surface of the sea, to the extent
of more than a hundred in a party, like the fabled
halcyons of antiquity as described by Ovid : —

" ' A bird new made, about the banks she plies
Not far from shore, and short excursions tries,
Nor seeks in air her humble flight to raise,
Content to skim the urface of the seas.'

400 HALCYONS.

These birds were small in size, not much larger than
swallows, generally black, with a few white feathers
near the tail. When we passed very near them they
rose from the water, hovered over the spot for a few
seconds, and then removed a little farther oflP, without
ascending from the water in any instance more than
two or three feet. Unlike the birds called by seamen
' Mother Carey's chickens,' which revel in the tem-
pest, and hover round a ship's wake in the heaviest
storms, just wetting their feet in the foam of the
crested wave, but rarely resting on its surface, as is
familiar to all old navigators, these halcyons seemed
to delight in the stillness of the calm ; and thus far
corresponded with the description of the Roman poet
in his elegant fable of Ceyx and Alcyone : —

" ' The gods their shapes to winter birds translate,
But both obnoxious to their former fate,
Their conjugal affection still is tried,
And still the mournful race is multiplied ;
They bill, they tread, Alcyone compressed,
Seven days sits brooding on her floating nest,
A wintry queen ! her sire at length is kind.
Calms every storm, and hushes every wind ;
Prepares his empire for his daughter's ease.
And for his hatching nephews smooths the seas.'

" Among the numerous otlier birds seen bv us

ILLUSTRATIONS FKOM OVID. 401

during the day, we noticed also tlie long-necked cor-
morant,—

" ' That sable bird that cuts the briny flood
With slender legs, and once of royal blood.'

As far as we had an opportunity of observing its
habits, they corresponded as faithfully with those
ascribed to the metamorphosed Esacus, as the habits
of the smaller birds resembled those attributed to
Alcyone after his transformation : and both induced
ns to believe that each of these feathered races was
well known to the Augustan bard, who had probably
seen them and noted their peculiarities during his
exile at Tomas, on the Euxine Sea, as his ' Meta-
morphoses ' are said not to have been finished when
the emperor sent him into banishment from Rome.
In his description of the despair of Esacus, after
Alexothoe's death, and his efforts at self-destruction
even after his transformation, we could perceive
many traits of resemblance in the picture of the
cormorant's habits, and easily conceive such a mytho-
logical application of them as Ovid has given in his
description."

Thus far the extracts from the Manuscript Jour-
nal,— to show that our hydrographical researches were
pleasantly varied with other topics of a lighter and

VOL. 11. D D

402 AllltlVE AT MOCIIA.

more agreeable nature. But I must refrain from
transcribing more, and proceed with the outline nar-
rative of the remainder of our voyage.

We passed through the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb
by the outer and broader channel near the Abyssinian
coast, and anchored at Mocha on the IStli of August,
— having been nearly two months in making the
long round of the southern passage, with its variety
of heavy gales and tedious calms.

Mr. Forbes, with all his establishment, having left
Mocha for Bombay, w^e found the British Residency
without occupants, — but we were permitted to take
up our quarters there during our intended stay. We
paid a visit to the Dola or governor, — saw every
thing worth notice in the town and neighbourhood,
and obtained much useful information respecting
the trade with Abyssinia ; — but as the Company's
cruiser, in which we came from Bombay, finished her
voyage here and returned to India, our only course
was to procure a passage in some coasting vessel of
the Arabs for the remainder of our voyage to Suez.
After a long delay we succeeded in finding a boat
going to Jedda, and in her we embarked, leaving
Mocha on the 3rd of September.

I had provided myself with every requisite for
making avcurate observations on our route, including

EMBARK FOR JEDDA. 403

a good sextant for astronomical purposes, a mariner's
compass, a log reel and lines, and several sounding-
leads for ascertaining tlie depths of water as required.
Our equipment in other respects was of the humblest
kind, — a supply of rice and ghee, or clarified butter,
■ — a goat for milk, — a few sheep for fresh meat,
fowls, eggs, coffee, and tea ; these, with a few plain
cooking utensils, and a mattress and bedding foreacli,
constituted our whole stock. We had, however,
excellent health, buoyant spirits, a fondness for
travel and adventure, a most cordial and friendly
attachment to each other, similarity of tastes and
sentiments, and a mutual determination to do every-
thing in our power to make the voyage agreeable.

In the course of our progress we touched at almost
every port in Arabia between Mocha and Suez, and
made some stay at the ])rincipal ones, sucli as Ho-
dcida, Loheia, the Island of Camaran, Gonfudda and
Jedda, the port of Mecca, where we arrived on the
29th of September. From hence we had to take an-
other native boat, in which we went to Yambo, the
port of Medina, and thence onward to Suez, wdiere
we arrived on the 10th of November, nearly five
months after quitting Bombay.

Independently of our long voyage by the round-
about route of the southern passage from Bombay

D D 2

404 OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING THE VOYAGE.

to eight degrees south of the equator — a distance of
more than 1500 miles, and 1500 more to regain our
northern latitude — owing to the south-west monsoon,
which makes a direct passage across from Bombay to
the Red Sea impossible for a sailing ship, — all the
navigation in native boats was of the slowest kind ;
sailing only by day, when the wind was fair, lying at
anchor when it was foul, and invariably stopping,
whether in port or not, from sunset to sunrise. It
had, however, this advantage, for me at least, that
by this means we kept always close to the shore,
which, for hydrographical purposes is most essential,
— that we anchored in every harbour on our way,
and that this enabled me to make plans of all the
good anchorages, and take copious sets of bearings
and distances of all the projecting points, as well as
soundings in every direction by the lead.

In the lower part of the Red Sea we had the
opportunity of correcting many gross errors of
Bruce's chart, and indeed to satisfy ourselves com-
pletely that he had never been south of Jedda; but
that his pretended voyage from thence to the Indian
Ocean, was a pure fiction, as it was impossible for
any one that had really performed that voyage to
make such a series of misrepresentations of the coast
as he has done. In the upper part of the Red Sea,

TECULIARITIES OF THE RED SEA. 405

which he had rccally visited and examined with great
care^ liis observations were most accurate ; and here
we had the opportunity of discovering that the
strictures of Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt on Bruce's
track were full of errors; as the very portions of
his work with which they most found fault, we ascer-
tained to be correct, and proved his critics to have
been guilty of the grossest injustice towards him.

I must mention two or three remarkable pecu-
liarities of the Red Sea before I close this chapter.
Along the whole extent of the Arabian coast, and to
some degree also in the Abyssinian, a continuous
chain of coral reef and rocks runs parallel to the
coast, at a distance of from ten to twenty miles
from the shore. There is thus a broad central
passage of clear deep water, in the centre, between
these two lines of reef; and two narrower passages,
one on each coast between the reef and the Arabian
or Abyssinian shore respectively. The central
passage is the one frequented by large vessels, and
the two minor ones by the native coasters ; and the
navigation is perfectly safe in either, if a good look-
out be kept ; for, owing to the entire absence of any
large rivers to discharge their mud into the sea, as
the Euphrates in the Persian Gulf, and the Ganges
in the Bay of Bengal, the water in the Red Sea is

406 COKAL BANKS.

everywhere of the most crystal purity ; so that coral
banks can be seen from the mast-head, and even from
the forecastle, long before the ship approaches them,
many having ten fathoms, or sixty feet water over
them, and yet being perfectly visible from the surface.
These coral banks are remarkable for their beauty,
combining, as they do, coralline formations of every
shape and every hue ; from solid masses like trunks
and branches of trees, to the varieties of Venus's
Fan, of brain coral, and ramifications of delicate
fibre, exhibiting the most vivid tints of purple,
scarlet, yellow, green, and white. On wrenching
any portion of these from the reef or shoal, you can
sec that the whole mass is alive with moving animal-
culse, hardly distinguishable without a magnifying
glass ; each particular formation having, it is probable,
a diff'erent creature for its architect. When the piece
is deposited on deck, in a few days the creatures die,
and then the mass emits a putrid animal smell. This
can only be cured by repeated buckets of water
thrown on the mass every hour in the day, by which
the dead bodies are at length all washed out of the
inner crevices. But this very process leads to the
complete extinction of all the vivid colours, by the
bleaching which the mass undergoes through the
constant succession of water and sun, till the whole

DIFFICULT NAVIGATION. 407

becomes a dead cream-colour, such as wo sec the
specimens of coralline in public museums, which,
when they were under water and full of life, were as
brilliant in colour as any flower garden.

The greatest care required in the navigation of the
Ked Sea is when passing from the inner to the outer
channels, or vice versa ; for this is only to be done
safely through certain " gates," as they are called, or
openings in different parts of the reef; and as these
are often tortuous and winding, it is only the local
experience of fishermen and pilots that can be safely
relied on to take a vessel of any large size through.
In the Indian expedition under Sir Home Popham,
which was sent to the relief of the British in Egypt
during Napoleon's invasion of that country, a vast
number of transports were wrecked for want of
this precaution. But now that steamships are chiefly
employed, the navigation is as safe and easy as the
Mediterranean ; as these, by pursuing a straight
course up or down the middle channel, and having
no necessity to tack or steer from side to side, which
sailing vessels must do in a contrary wind, they are
entirely free from the danger to which these tran-
sports were exposed.

The coralline formations can be nowhere seen to
greater perfection perhaps than in this sea, because
r> D 4

408 CORAL ISLANDS.

of the extreme transparency of the water. There are
hundreds of islands now in course of formation, in the
Pacific especially, by these subtile marine architects,
who have raised miles of reef around the crests of
extinct marine volcanoes in the Pacific groups, forming
central harbours or lagoons surrounded by circular
rings of land, and the same process gave rise to the
keys of the Bahamas and Bermuda in the Atlantic.
The Island of Diego Garcia was a mere reef just even
with the water's edge, when Captain Horsburgh was
first wrecked on it in 1786, and it has now an eleva-
tion of many feet above the surface, with palm groves,
and a good harbour ; the group of the Sychelles in
the Indian Ocean was formed in the same manner ;
and the long line of the Maldive and Laccadive Is-
lands, off" the coast of Malabar, which now produce
millions of cocoa nuts every year, giving, food, oil,
and rope from their substance, and sustaining by
connnerce some thousands of population, were all the
work of the little coral insect, in the same wonderful
process of submarine architecture.

The manner in which the reefs rise to the dignity
of habitable islands appears to be this. The minute
and invisible builders progressively raise their struc-
ture from a limestone basis at the bottom of the sea
till it reaches the surface. The winds and waves

MANNER OF FORMATION. 409

then commence their work of destruction, and break
and scatter the delicate fabric, spreading its debris
over the whole surface till it forms a bank. Aquatic
birds next frequent it, and there depositing their dung,
increase the mass, and form the substructure of its
future fertility. Floating substances are driven
against it, such as wood, branches of trees, sea-weed,
dead fish, dead birds, &c., and these all tend to give
the mass solidity and elevation. Winged seeds, which
are known to be carried hundreds of miles across the
sea, follow next in order; these are deposited, and
vegetation ensues. Vegetation invites more birds ;
and their nests, eggs, and young, all help, when in
the periods of their decay, to form fertile mould ;
and so the process goes on increasing, till groves
of palm and other trees are formed. Lastly, fresh
water is found on digging certain depths ; ships now
anchor there for wood and water ; pigs, sheep, and
povdtry are either purposely left, or accidentally es-
cape, and take up their abode there ; these increase in
numbers ; and now all the elements of shelter, soil,
wood, water, animals, birds, and fishes for food invite
settlers of the human race, who " increase and mul-
tiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it," and
exercise that " dominion over the beasts of the field.

410 IKREGULAK TI1>ES IN THE KED SEA.

and the fowls of the air," which was given to man as
his prerogative by his Divine Maker.

Another peculiarity of the Red Sea, — and one which
I have never yet met with any navigator or astrono-
mer who could readily account for — is this: that
while at its northern extremity of Suez, and its
southern extremity at Bab-el-Mandeb, there is a rise
and fall of at least six feet perpendicular in the ebb
and flow of the tides, there is no perceptible rise or
fall whatever at Jedda and all over the central and
broadest part of the Sea ; so that travellers passing
from the Eastern head of the Mediterranean, where
there are no tides, are struck with their existence at
the head of the Red Sea ; and voyagers from Jedda
and other central ports, going to either of the ex-
tremities, are equally impressed with what to them is
a phenomenon of an extraordinary kind. TJiere are
anomalies in the state of the tides throughout the
globe, not to be explained by the received Newtonian
theory, and this is one of them.

As we approached towards Suez we were becalmed
off the port of Tor, in the immediate vicinity of
Mounts Horeb and Sinai ; and having enjoyed during
a portion of the evening the pleasures of music, among
which the plaintive and beautiful air of Montalambert
formed a prominent feature — I penned the follow-

STANZAS. 41 1

ing stanzas adapted to that air, and embodying the
sentiments and feelings suggested by its soothing
strain, as heard during the silent calm that prevailed.

AIR— MONTALAMBERT.

I.
When the Ocean's storms are done,

And all around is peaceful calm,
As evening's blush, at setting sun,

Sheds o'er the scene a holier balm,
Tlie soul instinctive turns to heaven,

Filled with pure Devotion's glow.
And humbly hopes its sins forgiven

Above this world of doubt and woe.

II.

When the milder twiHght dies,

And every billow sinks to rest.
As stars begin to light the skies.

And day sinks deeper in the west.
Then the heart will Homeward turn,

To distant, dear, and long-loved Fri(nids,
And light with fires that holy urn

Whose incense pure to heaven ascends.

III.
When at midnight's hallowed noon

The rich ccerulean vault above
Yields to the bright meridian moon

Her tranqinl reign o'er night and love ;

412 STANZAS.

Bosoms then with fervour glowing
Pour their silent plaint along,

Till through every pulse are flowing
Passion, music, sigh, and song.

IV.

These my pensive breast inspiring,

As o'er the glassy deep we steer,
"When, on deck, at eve retiring,

Montalambert's strains I hear ;
Thus can Music's magic power

Lift the soul to realms above,
And mingle, in one silent hour,.

Devotion, Friendship, Home, and Love.

413

CHAP. XXII.

Arrival at Suez, and journey across the Desert. — Short stay
at Cairo. — Meet Mr. Burckhardt there. — Meet also Signor
Belzoni, on his way to India. — Dissuade him from the at-
tempt, for reasons assigned. — His subsequent employment
and travels in Egypt. — Hasten to Alexandria to see the
Pasha there. — Mr. Benjamin Babington remains at Cairo. —
Tribute to the character of my friend and companion. —
Explanation to the Pasha, of want of confidence in India.
— Recommend him to grant a Convention of Commerce. —
Liberal concession made by the Convention. — Contrast of its
terms with former exactions. — Undertake to be the bearer of
it to India. — Necessity for making this journey overland.
— Preparations to traverse Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Per-
sia.— Reasons for adopting the Oriental costume. — Appointed
as Envoy of the Pasha to India. — Safety of being a Turk. —
Danger of being an Englishman.

We reached Suez on the 10th of November, and
remained there three days to prepare for our Desert
journey to Cairo. This was performed on camels,
with a Bedouin guide, sleeping two nights on the
way — one in the middle of the Desert, and one on
the confines of Egypt — but without meeting with
any accident or remarkable occurrence.

At Cairo we remained a short time, and had the
pleasure to meet there Sheikh Ibraliim, Mr. Burck-

414 SIGNOR BELZONI.

hardt, who had not yet set out on his African
journey. He passed several hours with us, expressed
great interest in our voyage, and renewed his as-
surances of friendship. This was the last occasion of
my meeting him, as he subsequently died at Cairo,
and was interred there as a Mohammedan, with all
the usual rites and ceremonies of the Moslem faith;
never having entered at all on the great African
journey, for which he had been six or seven years
in training and preparation.

We met here also, for the first time, Signor Bel-
zoni, who had been employed by the Pasha as a
hydraulic engineer, for the management of the water-
works and irrigation of his gardens at Shoobrah, in
the Delta. We learnt from Signor Belzoni, that he
was a native of Padua, and being gifted with almost
superhuman strength, which his fine athletic figure
and great height seemed to indicate, as well as with
great flexibility of limb and finger, improved by con-
stant exei'cise, he had exhibited his powers as an
athlete and juggler in his own country and Malta,
and from thence had visited England, where he made
a tour through all the provinces, exhibiting feats of
strength and dexterity, under the name of the Pata-
gonian Samson, till he had exhausted public curio-
sity, and had now come out to Egypt, with a view

SIGNOR BELZONI. 415

to A'isit India, for a similar purpose. Both Mr.
Babington and I did our best to persuade him
against incurring such a risk of loss — first, as he
had no license to visit India, for the want of which
I had been banished from the country, and next,
because the athletaa and jugglers of India form a
very low and degraded caste, and would cause his
occupation to shut him out from all European society.
It appears that he was impressed with this advice,
as he subsequently relinquished the intention, was
afterwards employed by Mr. Salt and Mr. Bankes to
bring down some of the fragments of ancient monu-
ments from Upper Egypt, and then obtained deserved
celebrity as an enterprising and successful traveller,
by opening one of the great Pyramids of Memphis,
penetrating into several of the unopened tombs of the
kings at Thebes, and publishing a faithful and in-
teresting account of his researches in Egypt ; while
Mrs. Belzoni, his English wife, added her contribu-
tion in an account of the state of female society in the
East, to which she had been freely admitted.

As on inquiry it was ascertained that Colonel
Missett and all the British Embassy, as well as
Mohammed Ali Pasha, were now at Alexandria, it
became my duty to hasten there with as little delay
as possible, to give them an account of my Indian

416 PART WITH MR. BABINGTON.

voyage and its results. As my friend Mr. Babington
wished, however, to see something more of Egypt
before he quitted it, he remained at Cairo for this
purpose ; and Mr. Burckhardt promised to render
him all the aid and counsel he might require.

In parting with the companion of my way thus far,
I felt as if I were separated from a brother. Nothing
could exceed the kindness, cheerfulness, intelligence,
courtesy, and every other good quality that a traveller
could possess, which was manifested under the most
unfavourable circumstances by my excellent friend ;
nothing could be more completely harmonious than
our views and wishes throughout all the voyage ; and
as that had been mutually agreeable to both, so our
parting was mutually painful. As the best service
he could perform for me after our separation, he pro-
mised faithfully, on his reaching England, to repre-
sent my case to the India Directors, with whom he
was acquainted, so as to obtain for me the license
of the East India Company to reside in their terri-
tories, which he would forward to me, wherever
1 might then be. In this he succeeded, as will be
shown in a future portion of this narrative ; and
I have ever since had the happiness to enjoy tiie
most cordial intercourse with my friend, of now
nearly forty years' standing, in the person of Dr.

CONVENTION WITH THE PASHA OF EGYPT. 417

Benjamin Babington, of London, a worthy successor
of his venerable father, an ornament to his profession,
and beloved and esteemed by all who have the
pleasure of his acquaintance.

On my reaching Alexandria, I repaired to the
British Residency, and was there as cordially received
as ever by Colonel Missett and his suite. I had
interviews also with the British Consul, Mr. Lee,
and with IMohammed Aii Pasha ; to all of whom I
explained that the only obstacle in the way of a
revival of the trade between Egypt and Lidia, was
the want of some official Convention which should
guarantee to the merchants there protection for their
goods across the Desert, light duties, instead of the
heavy ones now exacted, and a ratification of such
Convention by the reciprocal signatures of the Pasha,
the British Consul, and myself.

This reasonable proposal was at once acceded to by
the Pasha, who authorised such a Convention to be
prepared: and after various interviews and discus-
sions on the several clauses of the same, it was
finally adopted in the following form : the original
of which, in Turkish and French, is still in my pos-
session ; for though Arabic is the current language
spoken in Egypt, Turkish is the language of the
Government, and used in all their public documents.

VOL. II. E E

418 TER31S OF THE CONVENTION.

Convention betioeen His Highness Mohammed All Pasha,
Viceroy of Egypt, on the one part, atid Messrs. Peter
Lee and James Silk Buckingham on the other part.

The Pasha of Egypt, animated by a desire to establisli
friendly commercial relations with the East Indies, so-
lemnly promises to grant and maintain the following
conditions. And, on the other hand, Mr. Peter Lee, of
the mercantile house of Briggs and Co., of Alexandria,
and Mr. James Silk Buckingham, agent for the commerce
of India at Suez, equally animated by the same sentiments,
promise to conform to them.

I. Every merchant vessel coming from India to the
address of the merchants interested in the present Con-
vention shall have full liberty to enter into the port of
Suez, and every other harbour in the Red Sea which
belongs to the Pasha of Egypt, and every assistance and
protection required shall be granted to them there.

II. The Pasha engages to take under his protection,
from the moment of their being landed, all the merchan-
dise which may arrive at Suez ; and to guarantee the
security of the same in the caravans by which it may be
transported across the Desert to Cairo. The consignees
of such merchandise at Cairo are to pay an ad valorem
duty of nine per cent., to include the custom-house dues,
the cost of escort, and insurance against loss, in con-
sideration of the solemn promise of his Highness the
Pasha, that if the caravan shall happen to be attacked
and plundered, or any of the goods sent by it be missing,
he will indemnify the owners to the full amount of the
loss they may have sustained.

TERMS OF THE CONVENTION. 419

III. If the consignees of the goods shall desire to ex-
port any portion of their merchandise from the ports of
Alexandria or Damietta to any of the markets of Europe
or of Turkey, it is agreed that no duties shall be levied on
the same at either of the ports named. And any goods
coming to them from Europe, which shall have paid an
import duty at either of the ports of Alexandria or Da-
mietta, shall be exempt from further import, to be certi-
fied by the usual passports and permits. But if such goods
are required to be transported across the Desert to Suez
for exportation to India, they shall enjoy all the protection
and guarantee of the Pasha across the Desert, as specified,
in Art, II., on the payment of six per cent. only.

IV. His Highness engages to furnish, with the least
possible delay, the number of camels necessary for the
transport of the merchandise from Suez to Cairo, or Cairo
to Suez ; and it is agreed that two Spanish dollars shall
be paid for each camel load, to the owners of the animals,
for their hire.

V. His Highness, in order to give to the commercial
relations with India all the assurance of confidence which
he desires to inspire in those who may enter into the same,
promises and engages that if, unfortunately, any rupture
should take place between the Govei-nments of the Sub-
lime Porte and that of England, he will make no change
in the conditions of this Convention ; and the merchants
included in it shall be permitted to remain in the country
in perfect security during a complete year. Within that
period they shall have full liberty to dispose of their effects,
to collect whatever may be due to them, and when the year
shall have expired they shall be permitted freely to leave

420 TERMS OF THE CONVENTION.

the country with their families and property, without being
troubled or vexed in any manner whatever. If, during the
year allowed, there shall arrive any English ships "from
India at Suez, the commanders shall be permitted to land
their cargoes and enjoy the same protection already agreed
on. Provided always that the same indulgence shall be
reciprocally observed in India towards the persons and
property of Ilis Highness the Pfisha.' • •'•..-■.-

In faith c|^? which' we here atiiiexour seals' and signa-
tures. "I ■ ■ . ^

Done at Alexandria on the 8th of December A. d.
1815.

(Signed) P. Lee.

J. S. Buckingham.
Mohammed Ali Pasha.

In order to appreciate fully the liberal terms of this
Convention, it should be mentioned, that previous to
its stipulations, the import-duty on merchandise from
India or England at Suez or Alexandria \vas ten per
cent, ad valorem, independently of other heavy
charges for local transit through the country, while
all were exposed to the liability of plunder by the
Arabs of the Desert and boatmen of the Nile, against
the risk of which no insurance could be effected on
any terms whatever. By this Convention, the import-
duties were reduced to three per cent., the expenses
of protection and transit three per cent., and the in-
surance against loss of any kind, by plunder or other-

AM SELECTED TO CAKRY IT TO INDIA. 421 '

wise, undertaken to be replaced to the full value by
the Pasha, at three per cent, more, making the whole
charge nine per cent., instead of at least eighteen or
twenty, including all costs by the former custom.
Added to this, the extreme liberality of his granting
full protection tp.persQns and- pro.p,erty fo.r an entire
3'^ear afteivjmy decla,rati©n of w-air.-betw^n England
and Turkey, 'andihen permittingv^H" Briiish subjects
to retire fi^om the country with their families and
effects unmolested and secure, was an advantage
never before conceded to the. subjects of any nation
by any OrieiTtal Power.

All parties being satisfied with the liberal condi-
tions of this Convention, the next step to be considered
was, how it could.be best, recommended to the adop-
tion of the. Britishi'nerchants.in India ; and the general
opinion was, that I should be made the bearer of it,
with fuH powers to enter into any contracts or engage-
ments conformably, to the conditions prescribed. As
our voyages by the Red;Sea, however, had ^been so
long. and tedious, and as tile season for the southern
passage had just terminated, and would require a
long delay if we. waited- fpr its return, it was deemed
best that I should make the journey to India over-
land, by way of Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and
Persia ; and to this I readily consented.

. VOL. H. F F

422 PREPARE FOR MY OVERLAND JOURNEY.

A new outfit became indispensable for such a pur-
pose ; and while the despatches were preparing for
India, I was occupied in effecting the necessary
changes for my overland journey. To traverse all
these regions, habited as a European, would have
been sure to entail endless annoyances, as well as often
great peril ; the only way of avoiding whicli, would be
to appear in all respects as much like a native of the
countries to be traversed as possible ; and the neglect
of this precaution has often brought European tra-
vellers into troubles which might have been easily
avoided. Even in civilised England, and courteous
and polished France, it is found that Turks or Arabs
passing through their cities and towns in the costume
of their respective countries, are sure to attract
crowds of idlers around their persons, while the very
dogs of the country recognise them as strange beings,
unusual in their appearance, and greet them with their
barkings accordingly. If this happens in the well-
informed countries of Europe, where people are not
wholly strangers to foreign costume, as they see it on
the stage, in masquerades, and in books of travels,
how much more is this likely to be the case in Eastern
countries, where the European dress is rarely seen,
except upon the sea-coast, and where it marks the
wearer not only as a stranger, but a giour or infidel,
an unbeliever in the Koran of Mohammed, and there-

ADOPT THE TURKISH COSTUME. 423

fore doubly obnoxious to all the zealous followers of
the Prophet ?

For these reasons I thought it wise to adopt the
Tui'kish costume, as it is worn by the officers of the
Government in Egypt ; and having already a full
grown beard, and a knowledge of the Arabic lan-
guage, which is spoken all the way from Cairo to
Bagdad ; having also, by my previous journeys,
acquired the habit of eating and drinking, sitting
and walking, like the natives of the country, who
have peculiarities in each, the very opposite of our
European habits, I felt a confidence in undertaking
the journey which, without such advantages and
preparations, would have been wanting.

For the purpose of ensuring my favourable re-
ception at Bombay, and protecting me even against
a repetition of the arbitrary banishment already in-
flicted on me, the Pasha (who expressed the greatest
surprise at what even he regarded as an act of
tyrauny, exceeded only by its folly, in thus treating
an individual whose pursuits were admitted by the
Governor himself as likely to be beneficial to the
Indian community by reviving the trade with the Red
Sea,) determined to clothe me with the authority of
his Envoy, and furnished me, therefore, with a firman
addressed to the Indian Government, authorising me,
as his representative, to purchase ships, embark

424 MADE BY THE PASHA HIS ENVOY.

cargoes, or execute any orders he might transmit to
me for this purpose. I was of course too happy to
be the bearer of such a protection as this would
afford me, if only for the purpose of illustrating the
absurdity of the system it was intended to counteract ;
as it would not only enable me to bid defiance to any
decree of banishment issued by the Government, since
they would not dare so to treat the Envoy of any
foreign Power ; but it would enable me constantly to
say, to all who inquired on the subject, that though, if
I had returned again simply as an English subject,
without the India Company's license, I could be again
summarily sent away ; yet having now come in the
character of a Turk, I was a free man, and could
reside in India without a license as long as I pleased.
The narrative of all the personal incidents arising
out of this Overland Journey, and my subsequent
career in India itself, will form the subject of the
future volumes, to follow this before the close of the
present year, if I am spared to complete them.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

London :

A. and G. A. Spottiswoooe,

Nevv-street-Square.

D

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